Russia and Ukraine concluded the first round of ceasefire talks at the Belarusian border, Russian state-owned news agency RIA reported on Monday, citing a Ukrainian official.
Both parties' diplomats will return to their respective capitals for further consultations before another round of talks.
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Russian and Ukrainian delegation meet near Belarusian border to discuss end to hostilities, February 28, 2022
(Photo: Reuters)
A member of the Ukrainian delegation at the ceasefire talks said the negotiations were difficult and the Russian side was biased.
"The Russian side, unfortunately, still has a very biased view of the destructive processes it has launched," Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak said on Twitter after attending the talks near the Belarusian border.
Ukraine news media reported that a Ukrainian presidential adviser called for the retreat of all Russian forces from Ukrainian territory, including from the Crimea and Donbas regions.
Ukrainian media later clarified that the reported comments were the personal opinion of the adviser, Oleksiy Arestovych, who is not a member of the Ukrainian delegation.
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A pro-Russian militia fighter stands on the smoldering debris of a residential home destroyed in the fighting in the breakaway region of Donetsk, Ukraine, February 28, 2022
(Photo: Reuters)
Meanwhile, the West warned of the possibility that Russia augments its attacks on Ukraine as the Russian military struggles to make gains in the fighting due to a farrago of logistical issues, low combat morale and fierce Ukrainian opposition.
This concern was addressed this evening by EU Foreign Minister Josep Borrell, who said that Russian attacks now appear to become "increasingly cruel."
British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said has warned that the coming days are likely to be "difficult" for Ukraine.
Meanwhile, Russian artillery bombarded residential districts of Ukraine's second-largest city Kharkiv on Monday, killing possibly dozens of people, Ukrainian officials said, as Moscow's invading forces met stiff resistance from Ukrainians on the fifth day of the conflict.
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Ukrainian police officers at a checkpoint in the capital Kyiv, February 28, 2022
(Photo: AFP)
Russia also faced deepening isolation and economic turmoil as Western nations, united in condemnation of its assault, hit it with an array of sanctions that created ripple effects around the world. Global shares slid and oil prices jumped.
But Russian President Vladimir Putin showed no sign he was reconsidering the invasion he unleashed on Russia's western neighbor last Thursday. He dismissed the West as an "empire of lies" and replied to the new sanctions with moves to shore up Russia's crumbling rouble currency.
The Russian invasion — the biggest assault on a European state since World War Two — has failed to make the decisive early gains that Putin would have hoped for. But Kharkiv in Ukraine's northeast has become a major battleground.
Regional administration chief Oleg Synegubov said Russian artillery had pounded residential districts even though no Ukrainian army positions or strategic infrastructure were there. At least 11 people had been killed, he said.
"This is happening in the daytime, when people have gone out to the pharmacy, for groceries, or for drinking water. It's a crime," he said.