Russia and Ukraine are continuing with the third round of talks in Belarus aimed at ending the crisis and resolving hostilities between the countries
Ukraine and Russia offered clashing views regarding the results of the third round of talks. Although Kyiv’s negotiator said that the talks yielded “positive results”, a Russian negotiator seems to be unhappy about the talks and has said that Moscow’s expectations were “not fulfilled.”
The third round of talks between Russia and Ukraine are aimed at the creation of humanitarian corridors to evacuate civilians trapped in war-hit Ukrainian cities.
Following the meeting, the head of the Russian delegation, Vladimir Medinsky said,
“Our expectations from negotiations were not fulfilled. We hope that next time we will be able to take a more significant step forward.”
On the other hand, advisor to the Ukrainian President, Mikhailo Podolyak posted on Twitter, hinting at some progress made during the talks,
“We have achieved some positive results concerning the logistics of humanitarian corridors.”
Developments in the Russia-Ukraine crisis during the ongoing talks
Russia has recently rejected a plan drawn by Russia to provide a humanitarian corridor to Kyiv, Mariupol, Kharkiv and Sumy that would evacuate civilians to Russia and Belarus.
Russia has announced that it plans to begin airlifts that would evacuate Ukrainians from Kyiv to Russia.
However, Ukraine has termed this Russian plan of evacuation an “unethical stunt”.
A spokesperson for the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky said that Russia is using
“people’s suffering to create a television picture.” Reuters reported the spokesperson as saying, “They are citizens of Ukraine, they should have the right to evacuate to the territory of Ukraine.”
On the other hand, the mayor of Sumy, Alexander Lysenko has announced in association with the commander of the national battalion that no green corridors shall be allowed to exist between Ukraine and Russia.
He said, “not a single civilian will go to Russia, and those who try to do this will be shot.”
Reactions from Russia
Russia had recently declared a ceasefire for humanitarian reasons and to aid evacuation efforts in Kyiv, Kharkiv, Mariupol and Sumy starting from 12:30 p.m. IST on Monday. However, even that turned out to be unsuccessful after Ukraine announced its rejection of the Russian corridor plan.
The Russian military operation in Ukraine has been ongoing for 12 days. Over 1.5 million people have fled Ukraine, leading the United Nations to term this one of the fastest-growing refugee crises since the Second World War.
Edited By- Subbuthai Padma
Published By- Satheesh Kumar
