Russia and Ukraine have resumed this Monday the fourth round of negotiations, this time by videoconference, to try to find a negotiated solution to a war that has already lasted 19 days. As pointed out by the Ukrainian negotiator Mijailo Podoliak on Twitter, the Kiev authorities have attended the meeting, which will continue on Tuesday, to demand a ceasefire, the immediate withdrawal of Russian troops from their territory and security guarantees. “A technical pause has been made in the negotiations until tomorrow” so that the working groups can “clarify definitions”, added Podoliak. This new contact between the two parties to the conflict takes place after a bombing earlier this Monday in the Obolon neighborhood of Kiev left at least one person dead.
“The parties are actively expressing their positions, which have already been clarified, communication is difficult, but it continues,” explained Podoliak, for whom “the reason for the disagreements” is due to the “very different” political systems that both countries have. . “Ukraine is a country that maintains free dialogue in society and binding consensus. Russia practices, in short, the suppression of its own society”, he added. Despite this, negotiators from both parties have detected some small progress. “The Russians are not making any more ultimatums and they listen to our proposals,” said Podoliak. For his part, Leonid Slutsky, chairman of the Duma Committee on International Affairs, has highlighted from the Russian side a “substantial progress” in the progress of the negotiations.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Sunday night that his representatives were negotiating a possible meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin. “Our mission is clear: to do everything possible to ensure a meeting between the two presidents,” he said in a video. And he stressed that one of Ukraine’s demands is the opening of humanitarian corridors for besieged cities. According to him, more than 130,000 people have been evacuated in the last six days, but he regretted that there are still many people trapped in enclaves like Mariupol, in the southeast of the country.
The mayor of this city has indicated that some 160 cars with civilians have been able to leave the town this Monday. The information has been confirmed by Ukraine’s deputy prime minister, Irina Vereshchuk, who has also criticized Russia for continuing to block the entry of humanitarian aid. One of the residents of Mariupol who has managed to escape the siege and communicate with his relatives in another municipality in the country has explained that the humanitarian corridor has been open until 5:00 p.m. local time (4:00 p.m. in mainland Spain), but that most part of the population of Mariupol has not been informed of the possibility of leaving the town. According to this source, the Kremlin forces have banned the population from leaving the city in buses and have only allowed the use of private cars, reports Margaret Yakovenko.
The diplomatic effort has a second stage this Monday in Rome, where envoys from the United States and China have met hours after it was learned that Russia requested economic aid and military material from the Asian giant shortly after starting the invasion of Ukraine. From China, the Foreign Ministry on Monday described the matter as “disinformation”, while the Kremlin has also denied the request for help.
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Bombings in Kiev
Meanwhile, Kiev has woken up this Monday with the noise of sirens and explosions. In the early hours of the morning, Russian troops have bombed a nine-story residential building in the Obolon neighborhood of the Ukrainian capital. The mayor of the city has assured in his Telegram account that at least one person has died in the attack – France Presse raises the number of fatalities to two – and another 10 have been injured. Some 70 people have had to leave their homes.
The World Health Organization (WHO), for its part, confirmed this Monday a total of 31 attacks against health centers since the beginning of the invasion in Ukraine, in which 12 people have died and another 34 have been injured. One of the victims is the pregnant woman who survived the Russian attack on the Mariupol maternity hospital and whose image went around the world, lying on a stretcher and holding her belly. Both she and her baby have finally died. The bombings against civilians, and especially against hospitals, point to the commission of war crimes by Moscow. According to the Ukrainian Prosecutor’s Office, at least 90 children have died since the beginning of the aggression.
The intensification of the attack on Kiev comes after a weekend in which the Russian offensive has experienced a new escalation of violence. Early on Sunday, the Russian army launched 30 missiles at a Ukrainian military base in Yavoriv, in the west of the country and just 25 kilometers from the border with Poland, a member country of the EU and NATO. According to regional authorities, the attack caused 35 deaths and 134 injuries.
The Russian Defense Ministry said on Monday that 20 civilians have been killed and 28 injured in the city of Donetsk (eastern Ukraine), controlled by pro-Russian separatists, supported by the Kremlin. Russia accuses Ukraine of launching the missile but has provided no evidence, and Ukraine has denied responsibility for the attack, which allegedly occurred as Russian forces were shelling Kiev and other Ukrainian cities. Ukraine has consistently denied claims that it would seek to forcibly retake the eastern Donbass cities of Donetsk and Luhansk from Russian-backed forces since 2014.
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