Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Wednesday peace talks were sounding more realistic but more time was needed, as Russian air strikes killed five people in the capital Kyiv and the refugee tally from Moscow's invasion reached 3 million.
Kyiv came under fire overnight once again from invading Russian forces and a 35 hour curfew on the city came into effect on Tuesday.
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Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky during a meeting with three visiting EU member state leaders on Tuesday night
(Photo: EPA)
Ukrainian officials have raised hopes the war could end sooner than expected, possibly by May, saying Moscow may be coming to terms with its failure to impose a new government by force and running out of fresh troops.
"The meetings continue, and, I am informed, the positions during the negotiations already sound more realistic. But time is still needed for the decisions to be in the interests of Ukraine," Zelensky said in a video address ahead of the next round of talks.
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Kyiv streets empty as capital is under a 35 hour curfew on Wednesday
(Photo: Reuters )
In a hint of a possible compromise, Zelensky said earlier Ukraine was prepared to accept security guarantees from the West that stop short of its long-term goal of joining NATO. Moscow sees any future Ukraine membership of the Western alliance as a threat and has demanded guarantees it will never join.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said it was too early to predict progress in the talks. "The work is difficult, and in the current situation the very fact that (the talks) are continuing is probably positive."
Russia calls its actions a "special military operation" to demilitarize and "denazify" Ukraine. Ukraine and Western allies call this a baseless pretext for a war of choice that has raised fears of wider conflict in Europe.
Zelensky will livestream an address the U.S. Congress on Wednesday as he has been using the West's great legislative bodies as a global stage to orchestrate support against Russia's crushing invasion.
U.S. President Joe Biden will make his first visit to Europe since Russia invaded Ukraine to discuss the crisis with NATO allies next week, the White House said.
Biden will attend a NATO leaders meeting at the military alliance's headquarters in Brussels on March 24.
Biden is expected to announce an additional $800 million in security assistance to Ukraine on Wednesday, a White House official said.
NATO is set to tell its military commanders on Wednesday to draw up plans for new ways to deter Russia from future military action, including more troops and missile defenses in eastern Europe, officials and diplomats said.
"We need to reset our military posture for this new reality," NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg told reporters on Tuesday. "Ministers will start an important discussion on concrete measures to reinforce our security for the longer term, in all domains."
At least 10 of NATO's biggest allies, including the United States, Britain and France, have deployed more troops, ships and warplanes to its eastern flank, and put more on stand-by.
Kyiv bombed, five killed
Just over 3 million have now fled Ukraine, according to the United Nations, with over 1.8 million arriving in neighbouring Poland. Its prime minister and those of Slovenia and the Czech Republic were in Kyiv on Tuesday to show solidarity.
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An apartment building destroyed by Russian shelling on Wednesday in Kyiv
(Photo: Reuters)
In Kyiv, around half of the 3.4 million residents have fled and some spend nights sheltering in metro stations.
Local authorities said Tuesday's bombardments on Kyiv killed at least five people as buildings were set ablaze and people were buried under rubble. Russia denies targeting civilians.
About 2,000 cars left the besieged southern port city of Mariupol, location of the worst humanitarian crisis, the local council said.
But a convoy with supplies for Mariupol, where residents have been sheltering from repeated Russian bombardments and are desperate for food and water, was stuck at nearby Berdyansk, Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said.
More than 100 buses carrying a few thousand civilians left the besieged northeastern city of Sumy in a "safe passage" operation, the International Committee of the Red Cross said on Tuesday. They were heading towards Lubny in central Ukraine after Russians gave a green light for the evacuation.
The emergency service in Ukraine's eastern region of Kharkiv region said on Wednesday that at least 500 residents of the city of Kharkiv have been killed since Russia invaded on Feb. 24.
Russia said it now controlled the Kherson region in southern Ukraine. Reuters could not independently verify the report.
Meanwhile, NATO is set to tell its military commanders on Wednesday to draw up plans for new ways to deter Russia following Moscow's invasion of Ukraine, including more troops and missile defenses in eastern Europe, officials and diplomats said.
Defense ministers will order the military advice at NATO headquarters, just over a week before allied leaders, including U.S. resident Joe Biden, gather in Brussels on March 24.
Ministers will also hear from their Ukrainian counterpart Oleksii Reznikov, who is expected to plead for more weapons from individual NATO countries, as Russian attacks on Ukraine's cities continue and the Russian military seeks control of Kyiv.
First published: 08:47, 03.16.22