President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Sunday that Ukraine has agreed to meet with Russian representatives for peace talks before immediately admitting that such negotiations will be fruitless.
Ukraine's defiant president openly questioned the possibilities of succeeding just hours after the announcement.
The scheduled meetings set for Monday, according to Ukraine's US ambassador, occurred after Zelenskyy said he had an optimistic conversation with Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko, one of the Kremlin's primary allies and one of the countries from which Russian forces poured in on Thursday.
Peace Talks To Start Between Russia, Ukraine
"All planes, helicopters, and missiles stationed on Belarusian soil would remain on the ground during the Ukrainian delegation's travel, talks, and return," Lukashenko stated, according to Zelenskyy.
The negotiations will take place at a border checkpoint between Aleksandrovka and Vilcha, according to Belarusian official media. Putin's group has already arrived in Belarus, according to Putin. Oksana Markarova, Ukraine's ambassador to the United States, said Zelenskyy would "certainly not" be present, New York Post reported.
As Putin's invasion enters its fourth day, diplomats from Kyiv and Moscow are expected to meet without preconditions near the Prypyat River on the Belarusian border.
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko "has assumed responsibility for ensuring that all planes, helicopters, and missiles stationed on Belarusian soil remain on the ground during the Ukrainian delegation's travel, talks, and return," according to President Zelenskyy's office.
The negotiations were arranged after a chat between Zelenskyy and Lukashenko, according to Ukraine's foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba, after it was suspected that Belarus was preparing forces to join Moscow's invasion.
Diplomats will meet "without preliminary agreement" on what the negotiations' outcome could be, he said. Zelenskyy had earlier refused to negotiate in Belarus, but according to Kuleba, Belarus' president assured him that "no such step" would be made as long as the scheduled meetings proceeded.
The Russian tyrant is claimed to be "enraged" that he hasn't been able to control Ukraine and has slammed NATO for its "unfriendly measures," which he claims forced him into the dangerous nuclear gamble. Putin has now ordered the world's greatest stockpile of nuclear warheads to be prepared for launch.
This increases the terrible risk that the crisis and a blunder will lead to nuclear war. Putin stated that NATO leaders' hostile rhetoric and economic penalties against Moscow compelled his hand in a speech on national television, as per The Sun.
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Russia Appears Shifting To Siege Warfare in Ukraine
Putin's new nuclear threat seems to be directed at the West, which has become increasingly united in support of Ukraine. He urged his defense minister and senior military commander to put Russia's nuclear forces on notice in brief remarks broadcast on state television, describing the measure as a response to the West's "aggressive" activities.
The nuclear alarm was characterized by the White House through press secretary Jen Psaki, as yet another example of Putin fabricating a threat and using it to justify confrontation. According to a Pentagon official who briefed reporters, top Pentagon leaders are confident in the United States' capacity to protect itself and its allies. The move to place Russia's nuclear forces on high alert, according to the official, was unnecessary; Putin had increased the risk of a miscalculation.
Russian forces, slowed by Ukrainian opposition and their logistical limitations, have already begun using harsher tactics, such as rocket assaults near Chernihiv, northeast of Kyiv, according to a Pentagon official. Many more civilians could be killed as a result of these techniques.
Russian troops are adopting a siege mindset, which raises the possibility of civilian casualties and infrastructure damage. Russian forces were also on the move from the north, pushing their way towards Kyiv.
Russia appears to be attempting to cut off the main Ukrainian military forces in the center of Ukraine, which have been defending the former line of contact with the Donetsk and Luhansk enclaves, to prevent them from moving toward Kyiv and receiving supplies sent by Western allies via Poland.
According to recordings and images studied by The New York Times, Russian troops also pushed closer to the core of Kharkiv, Ukraine's second-largest city, at least for a period. Ukrainian forces were seen firing rockets towards Russian troops, as well as some Russian military vehicles being burned and others being plundered by Ukrainian forces.
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