Russia-Ukraine talks make ‘little progress towards ceasefire’

Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has pushed for his country to mediate

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu (C) chairs a meeting on Thursday with his Russian and Ukrainian counterparts Sergey Lavrov (L) and Dmytro Kuleba, in Antalya, Turkey. AP

The talks represent the first high-level contact between Kyiv and Moscow since Russia invaded Ukraine two weeks ago. AP

Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Turkish President, has voiced hope the talks can avert tragedy — perhaps even leading to a ceasefire. AFP

Mr Cavusoglu talks to Mr Lavrov. Reuters

Turkey, a Nato member, is keen to maintain healthy relations with both sides. AP

The visit to Antalya is the first trip abroad for Mr Lavrov since Russia has been increasingly isolated by the West. EPA

Some analysts fear there is only a slim chance of any breakthrough at the meeting. EPA

Mr Kuleba, Ukraine’s foreign chief, said his expectations were ‘limited’. AFP

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Little progress was made towards a ceasefire on Thursday as the foreign ministers of Russia and Ukraine met face to face for talks in Turkey.

Ukraine’s Dmytro Kuleba said the two priorities for Kyiv right now were organising humanitarian corridors from the besieged city of Mariupol and reaching a 24-hour truce.

As the ministers were speaking, news from the front lines indicated an aid convoy for Mariupol was forced to turn around due to Russian shelling.

Mr Kuleba said there was little progress towards meeting those goals but that he was happy to continue talks with his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov.

While Mr Lavrov said “Ukraine seems to want to have meetings for the sake of meetings”, he said Russia was “fully serious” about reaching a negotiated settlement with Ukraine.

He also said that his boss, President Vladimir Putin, would not refuse a sit down with his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelenskyy if talks were “substantive and specific.”

Turkey's foreign minister said a sustainable ceasefire was needed in Ukraine.

This satellite image provided by Maxar Technologies shows destroyed and burning warehouse buildings in Stoyanka, Ukraine, in the western Kyiv region, during the Russian invasion. AP

Children shelter in a metro station in Kharkiv. Moscow said on March 10, 2022, that it will open daily humanitarian corridors to allow civilians fleeing fighting in Ukraine to reach Russian territory, despite Kyiv insisting that no evacuation routes should lead to Russia. AFP

Russian President Vladimir Putin during a videoconference meeting with government members at the Kremlin in Moscow. The meeting focuses on minimising the effects of sanctions on the Russian economy. Russian troops entered Ukraine on February 24, prompting the country's president to declare martial law and triggering a series of severe economic sanctions imposed by western countries. EPA

Rescuers work among remains of buildings damaged by an air strike in Dnipro, Ukraine, as Russia's attack on the country continues. Reuters

Members of the National Guard of Ukraine, Oleksandr and Olena, listen to a priest at their wedding in Ukraine. Reuters

People fleeing Russia's invasion of Ukraine warm up by a fire near the train station in Lviv, Ukraine. Reuters

Russian forces rolled their armoured vehicles up to the northeastern edge of Kyiv, edging closer in their attempts to encircle the Ukrainian capital. AFP

A woman covers herself with a blanket near a damaged fire truck after shelling in Mariupol, Ukraine. AP Photo

A Ukrainian soldier hides from a helicopter air strike near Demydiv, Ukraine. Reuters

Ukrainian soldiers walk past a monument of the city founder Duke de Richelieu, covered with sand bags for protection, in Odessa, Ukraine. Reuters

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, left, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, centre, and Ukranian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba. EPA

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in talks with Ukrainian counterpart Dmytro Kuleba during a tripartite meeting chaired by Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, in Antalya, Turkey. AP

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova speaks to the media as the foreign ministers of Ukraine, Russia and Turkey hold talks in Antalya, 15 days after Russia launched a military invasion on Ukraine. AFP

A Ukrainian serviceman says goodbye to his girlfriend before departing in the direction of Kyiv at the central train station in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv. AFP

Valerii Sushkevych, president of the Ukraine National Paralympic Committee, and the Ukraine delegation raise their fists and pose with a banner at the Beijing 2022 Winter Paralympic Games. Reuters

A member of the Ukrainian team cries during a moment of silence at the Zhangjiakou athletes village during the Beijing 2022 Winter Paralympic Games. AFP

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, right, and Ukraine Foreign Minister Dmytro Kubela, second left, in Antalya, Turkey. AFP

A man is supported after crossing the Irpin river while fleeing the town of Irpin, Ukraine. AP

People are helped out of a damaged children's hospital following a Russian air strike in the southeastern city of Mariupol, Ukraine. AFP

A man rides a bicycle in front of an apartment building that was damaged by shelling in Mariupol. AP

A woman carries two babies after arriving at a triage point in Kyiv, Ukraine. AP

A man hugs an elderly woman after crossing a damaged bridge as they flee from the frontline town of Irpin, near the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv. EPA

Local residents cook at a makeshift camp next to a checkpoint in Kyiv. EPA

Ukrainian men chop wood at a makeshift camp next to a checkpoint in Kyiv. EPA

A member of the Territorial Defence Forces learns how to use a Javelin missile during a training session in Kyiv. EPA

Members of the Territorial Defence Forces learn how to give first aid during the training session. EPA

A woman rescued from the outskirts of Kyiv holds a plate of food after arriving at a triage point in the Ukrainian capital. AP

A woman cries after arriving at the triage point in Kyiv. AP

Civilian vehicles drive past a destroyed Russian tank as they leave Irpin. AP

Ukrainian servicemen stand in a foxhole in Irpin. AP

People gather on a platform to board a train leaving Odesa after the US said Russian troops are making preparations to attack the city. AFP

A Ukrainian woman looks for food in a bin in Odesa's city centre. AFP

Ukrainian servicemen look towards Russian positions outside the city of Brovary, east of Kyiv. AFP

A man walks past a shelled house at the village of Velyka Dymerka, east of Kyiv. AFP

A Ukrainian serviceman stands at a check point in the vilage of Velyka Dymerka east of Kyiv. AFP

A Ukrainian woman plays with her child in a temporary refugee shelter in Przemysl, Poland. Reuters

A woman waits outside a maternity and children's hospital damaged by shelling in Mariupol, Ukraine. AP

A pregnant woman leaves the hospital after she was wounded when it was bombed. AP

A woman waits outside the damaged hospital in Mariupol. AP

A man wounded by shelling in Mariupol. AP

A car burns after the destruction of the children's hospital in Mariupol. Reuters

A mortuary worker wheels a stretcher used to move dead bodies before they are buried on the outskirts of Mariupol. AP

Mr Lavrov insisted Russia’s military operation was going to plan despite apparent significant losses and stalled supply convoys that appear to have forced Moscow to pivot to heavy artillery in recent days.

He said that Moscow’s conditions for halting fighting remained the same and that Russia was awaiting a reply.

“We want a friendly, demilitarised Ukraine without any threat to Moscow and Russian culture,” Mr Lavrov said, adding that the West “ignored the repression of Russian speakers and Russian culture in Ukraine.”

However, Mr Kuleba dismissed the demands as being tantamount to surrender and said Ukraine would continue to fight.

More than two million people have fled in two weeks of fighting since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

As well as a large humanitarian operation to assist those affected by fighting, the West has imposed wide-ranging sanctions in a bid to isolate Russia, and shipped tonnes of weapons and equipment to the Ukrainian military to help it push back its technologically and numerically superior adversary.

Mr Lavrov accused the West of arming Ukraine with “deadly weapons” and said that it would create a dangerous regional situation “for years to come”.

“Those who supply weapons to Ukraine and mercenaries there should understand the danger of what they are doing,” he said.

He said that Russia would never rely on the West and that “Uncle Sam will never be able to destroy our economy again.”

A Ukrainian serviceman walks past the vertical tail fin of a Russian Su-34 bomber lying in a damaged building in Kharkiv, Ukraine. AP Photo

An apartment building damaged after shelling in Kharkiv, Ukraine. AP Photo

A woman puts her head in her hands as she sits on a cot in a shelter, set up for displaced persons fleeing Ukraine, inside a school gymnasium in Przemysl, Poland. AP Photo

Belarussian and suspected Russian helicopters on the flight line at Machulishchy Air Base outside Minsk, Belarus. AP Photo

Children look on as people fleeing Russia's invasion of Ukraine shelter in a school, in Drohobych, Ukraine. Reuters

Families eat in the shelter. Reuters

A woman looks out from a building damaged by Russian shelling in Mykolaiv, 100 kilometres away from Odesa, western Ukraine. AFP

A wounded Ukrainian man waits in the corridor of the central hospital of Mykolaiv. AFP

An elderly woman is carried in a shopping cart after being rescued from Irpin, on the outskirts of Kyiv, Ukraine. AP

A woman reacts as a train carrying children from Kyiv's Central Children's Hospital leaves the Ukrainian capital on its way to Lviv. Reuters

A girl sits in an improvised bomb shelter in Mariupol, Ukraine. AP

An elderly woman is coated in snow as she sits in a wheelchair after being rescued from Irpin. AP

Belarusian volunteers take part in military exercises at the Belarusian Company base in Kyiv. AP

Lessa, left, director of a nursery school turned into a refugee shelter, cries as she hugs Olega, who arrived from Kyiv with her baby, near Lviv. EPA

Ukrainians pass a damaged bridge as they flee from Irpin. AP

A man carries an elderly woman as people continue to leave Irpin. AP

A soldier stands on a barricade made of sandbags in central Odesa, Ukraine. Reuters

A charred Russian tank and captured tanks in the Sumy region. Reuters

People rest at a temporary shelter for Ukrainian refugees in Przemysl, Poland. AFP

Ukraine's ambassador to the Netherlands, Maksym Kononenko, third right, and his wife Tetiana Doroshenko, fourth left, attend a meeting of members of the Ukrainian community with Dutch King Willem-Alexander, third left, and Queen Maxima, second left, to discuss the situation in Ukraine, in The Hague. EPA

A Ukrainian soldier looks at the destruction after shelling in Ukraine's second-largest city of Kharkiv. AFP

A refugee holds her dog as they wait for trains to Poland in Lviv, Ukraine. Reuters

A woman ties ribbons in Ukrainian national flag colours in a girl's hair as people wait at a refugee assistance centre in Prague, Czech Republic. EPA

A Ukrainian soldier carries an elderly woman crossing the Irpin river on the outskirts of Kyiv. AP

Lena, who had never left Ukraine before fleeing into Moldova, feeds Dasha, 3, soon after crossing the border. Erin Clare Brown for The National

Refugees without immediate plans to move further inland can stay the night in tents set up on Moldova's side of the border. Erin Clare Brown for The National

Tatiana and her son wait for a van that will carry them from the Moldovan border to Chisinau. Erin Clare Brown for The National

Each night, the Palanca refugee camp in Moldova feeds up to 300 people who arrive with no onward plans. Erin Clare Brown for The National

People pass a damaged bridge while fleeing the town of Irpin, close to the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv. AP

A Ukrainian soldier stands guard next to a church in Irpin. EPA

A firefighter holds the baby of a Ukrainian refugee at the border in Romania. AP

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy speaks in Kyiv. Reuters

A Ukrainian soldier at a checkpoint in Kyiv. AP

Ukrainian activist Ihor Mazur, left, a veteran of the war in the country's east, looks at a night-vision device in Kyiv. AP

Ambassadors attend a UN Security Council meeting on threats to international security after Russia's invasion of Ukraine, in New York. Reuters

Ukraine's UN ambassador Sergey Kyslytsya holds a paper with an image of Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov as he addresses the Security Council in New York. Reuters

A road sign put up in support of Mr Zelenskyy outside Russia's embassy in Washington. AFP

Ukrainian refugees at the train station in Lviv, western Ukraine. EPA

Lethal and non-lethal Ukrainian aid is loaded on to a plane bound for Poland by Canadian soldiers in Trenton, Ontario. Reuters

Volunteers carry medical aid and necessities at a train station in Lviv. EPA

Everton players wear T-shirts in support of Ukraine as they warm up for an English Premier League football match against Tottenham Hotspur. AP

A residential building damaged by Russian shelling in Chernihiv, Ukraine. Reuters

A man walks past a checkpoint in heavy snow in Lviv. Getty

A man fleeing fighting in Irpin waits to cross a river after Russian forces entered the city. Getty

Soldiers assist Irpin residents underneath a damaged bridge as they flee. Getty

Ukrainian civilians who volunteered to join the Territorial Defence Forces take part in a training exercise in Odesa after Russia's invasion. Reuters

Men carry a body to a lorry as people flee from the frontline town of Irpin. EPA

A Ukrainian police officer runs with a child as the sound of shelling echoes nearby in Irpin. AP

Parents and children struggle to board a train in Lviv. AP

He added that the reaction of the West “showed just how threatened Russia is — its very right to be on the map of the world is under threat.”

He said Moscow had never used oil and gas as a weapon, in reference to the US banning the import of Russian hydrocarbons, but he noted there were other buyers for its supplies.

Mr Kuleba said that talks with Mr Lavrov were both difficult and easy. He said it was not easy to listen to Mr Lavrov who, he claimed “followed his traditional rhetoric”, and easy because “I did my best”.

He said that he offered in the meeting with Mr Lavrov to call officials in Ukraine and “give you a 100 per cent guarantee on humanitarian corridors” and asked if his Russian counterpart could do the same. He said Mr Lavrov did not respond.

The urgent talk of humanitarian corridors and ceasefires comes after a marked increase in the shelling of cities in Ukraine and the collapse of two attempts to pause fighting to allow civilians and the wounded to flee at the weekend.

Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who has pushed for Turkey to mediate, has expressed hope the talks can avert tragedy and even lead to a ceasefire agreement.

Senior Ukrainian officials, including the country's defence minister, have held a series of meetings with a Russian delegation in Belarus.

Replying to reporters’ questions about accusations from the Ukrainian president that Russia had bombed a children’s hospital in Mariupol, Mr Lavrov said it “was already in control of Ukrainian radicals and no patients were there.”

“There have long been no women and children there, just armed radicals,” he said, adding that the media had not given both sides on the topic.

Asked about the prospects of nuclear war with the West, the Russian official said: “I don’t want to believe so and do not believe so.”