Putin not willing to compromise ahead of Ukraine peace talks: US official

Russian President Vladimir Putin didn't seem ready to make any compromises forward of the primary face-to-face peace talks with Ukraine in two weeks, in line with a senior US official.

Delegates of the 2 nations have been set to satisfy Monday amid a altering battlefield, by which Ukrainian forces final week loosened Russia’s grip with a sequence of profitable counterattacks outdoors Kyiv and Kherson.

“All the pieces I've seen is [Putin] will not be keen to compromise at this level,” the senior US State Division official instructed Reuters.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Sunday instructed Russian journalists that he was keen to compromise on the problem of Ukrainian neutrality.

“Safety ensures and neutrality, non-nuclear standing of our state — we're able to go for it,” he stated in Russian.

Whereas particulars of the plan have been hazy, Zelensky stated any deal can be brokered by third events and put to a referendum for Ukrainian voters. The president additionally made clear that any deal would require Russia to withdraw its troops from Ukraine.

Negotiations are set to start Tuesday in Turkey, a NATO member state with shut diplomatic ties to each Russia and Ukraine. Will probably be the primary face-to-face assembly between the warring international locations since March 10.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky instructed Russian journalists on Sunday that he was keen to compromise on the problem of Ukrainian neutrality.

UKRAINIAN PRESIDENTIAL PRESS SERVICE

The 2 sides are anticipated to satisfy in an try to finish the bloody battle between the 2 nations.

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A Ukrainian serviceman poses in entrance of what they are saying are destroyed Russian army automobile and gear within the village of Lukianivka on March 28, 2022.

REUTERS/Serhii Hudak

Ukraine’s army says it has made territorial positive aspects within the wider Kyiv area, after Russia’s advance on the capital had largely stalled in latest weeks.

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A firefighter appears to be like at a warehouse on fireplace after it was hit by the Russian artillery in Kharkiv on March 28, 2022.

EPA/ROMAN PILIPEY

Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest metropolis of 1.5 million folks, which lies about 25 miles from the Russian border, has been closely shelled by Russian forces over the previous weeks.

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A destroyed constructing after shelling in Chernihiv, Ukraine, on March 27, 2022.

EPA/NATALIIA DUBROVSKA

A Ukrainian serviceman buries the stays of what he says is the physique of a Russian soldier within the village of Lukianivka, which was not too long ago reclaimed by Ukrainian armed forces.

REUTERS/Serhii Hudak

A map displaying the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Negotiations are set to start Tuesday in Turkey, a NATO member state with shut diplomatic ties to each Russia and Ukraine. Will probably be the primary assembly face-to-face between the warring international locations since March 10, 2022.

EPA/MIKHAIL KLIMENTYEV / KREMLIN / SPUTNIK / POOL

Whereas Ukraine has retaken strategic territory across the capital metropolis and the Crimean peninsula, Russian forces proceed to pummel the southern port metropolis of Mariupol, the place street-by-street combating has damaged out after weeks of heavy bombardment.

And because the Russians sign a shift of their priorities towards the separatist-held areas of the Donbas within the east, Zelensky stated they're returning to a number of the brutal techniques borne of the combating that started there in 2014.

“They're kidnapping the mayors of our cities,” Zelensky instructed the Economist in an interview Sunday. “They killed a few of them. A few of them we are able to’t discover. A few of them we now have discovered already, and they're useless.”

With Publish wires