Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says his country is ready for peace talks with Russia but not in Belarus, which was a staging ground for Moscow’s invasion.
Speaking in a video message, Zelenskyy named Warsaw, Bratislava, Istanbul, Budapest and Baku as alternative venues. He said other locations are also possible but made clear that Ukraine doesn’t accept Russia’s selection of Belarus.
"Warsaw, Bratislava, Budapest, Istanbul, Baku. We proposed all of them," Zelensky said in an address posted online.
The Kremlin said Sunday that a Russian delegation had arrived in the Belarusian city of Gomel for talks with Ukrainian officials. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said the delegation includes military officials and diplomats.
"The Russian delegation is ready for talks, and we are now waiting for the Ukrainians,” Peskov said.
He also said that Ukrainian side has chosen Belarusian city of Gomel as place for peace talks, adding that Moscow has warned Kyiv that military operations will not be halted while talks are ongoing.
Ukraine wants only "real" negotiations with Russia over its military offensive, without ultimatums, an adviser to Zelenskyy told Reuters on Sunday, calling Moscow's decision to send a delegation to Belarus for talks "propaganda".
"There will be no representatives of Ukraine in Belarus' Gomel," Sergii Nykyforov wrote on Facebook, citing fact that while format was really discussed, at the last moment, Russian negotiators demanded that the Ukrainian army lay down their arms first.
Belarusian President Aleksander Lukashenko continues to deny the country's involvement in the war with Ukraine.
"There is not a single Belarusian soldier in Ukraine, not a single cartridge," he claimed on Sunday. "There is no need to fasten us to where we are not."
"We must stop the war. I wouldn't even call it a war. This is conflict. Day or two – there will be a war. And three days later – a meat grinder," he added.
Russia invaded Ukraine on Thursday, with troops moving from Moscow’s ally Belarus in the north, and also from the east and south.
Zelenskyy said Sunday that Moscow was bombarding residential areas in Ukraine as its invading forces sought to push deeper into the pro-Western country.
"The past night in Ukraine was brutal, again shooting, again bombardments of residential areas, civilian infrastructure," Zelenskyy said in an address posted online.
"Today, there is not a single thing in the country that the occupiers do not consider an acceptable target. They fight against everyone. They fight against all living things – against kindergartens, against residential buildings and even against ambulances."
He said Russian forces were "firing rockets and missiles at entire city districts in which there isn't and never has been any military infrastructure."
"Vasylkiv, Kyiv, Chernigiv, Sumy, Kharkiv and many other towns in Ukraine are living in conditions that were last experienced on our lands during World War II."
