Zelensky’s announcement came in a tweet on Twitter, and also said he had asked Bennett to help secure the release of the mayor of Mariupol, who Ukraine says was kidnapped by Russian forces.
Meanwhile, the Ukrainian president confirmed, on Saturday, that Russia had adopted a “fundamentally different approach” from its previous approaches during negotiations to end the war.
In response to a question about Russian President Vladimir Putin’s statements, on Friday, in which he talked about “progress” in the Russian-Ukrainian talks, the Ukrainian president said he was “happy to receive a signal from Russia.”
In a press conference broadcast by the Ukrainian presidency via the Telegram application, Zelensky added that during the recent discussions “we started talking” and Moscow was no longer “only issuing ultimatums”, which constitutes a “fundamentally different approach.”
According to the Ukrainian president, his country has contacted Russia “more than a dozen times” over the past two years “without receiving a response at all about the possibility of a dialogue.”
Conversations continue
Zelensky’s comments come after a meeting held Thursday between the Russian and Ukrainian foreign ministers in Turkey, the first at this level since the beginning of the conflict.
Prior to that, three sessions of delegation-level talks were held, the first on the Ukrainian-Belarusian border and the next two on the Polish-Belarusian border.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Saturday that these talks were continuing by video link, but declined to give further details.
Adviser to the Ukrainian President, Mikhailo Podolyak, confirmed that these negotiations took place via video, pointing to the establishment of “sub-working groups”.
However, Zelensky lamented that “the Western partners (of Ukraine) are not sufficiently committed” to this approach.
Regarding security guarantees, he said, “Ukraine will not be able to trust Russia after this bloody war. Such security guarantees should be given by other foreign leaders.”
1,300 Ukrainian soldiers killed
During this press conference on Saturday, the Ukrainian president announced for the first time that “about 1,300” Ukrainian soldiers have been killed since the start of the Russian offensive on Ukraine on February 24.
Zelensky revealed that “about 1,300 of our soldiers died,” without further details.
He stressed that the Russian army lost “about 12,000 soldiers,” adding, “It’s one in ten, but I’m not happy with that.”
On the second of March, the Russian army announced the killing of about 500 soldiers in its ranks, in a toll that has not been updated since, knowing that the battles continue in several Ukrainian cities, especially around the besieged city of Mariupol on the Sea of Azov, and in the vicinity of Kyiv, which Russian forces are trying to encircle.
On the eighth of March, about two weeks after the outbreak of the conflict, the US Department of Defense estimated the losses of the Russian army at between two thousand and four thousand people.
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