Ukraine's foreign minister hopes Russia approaches talks in Turkiye in good faith

By Meiramgul Kussainova

KYIV, Ukraine (AA) - Ukraine’s foreign minister expressed hope Wednesday that his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov will approach talks in Turkiye on ending the war in a sincere manner.

“I hope he will approach these talks in good faith, not from a propaganda perspective, but really with the task of finding a solution on how to end the war waged by Russia," Dmytro Kuleba said in a video message posted on Facebook.

A high-level tripartite meeting between Turkiye, Russia and Ukraine will take place Thursday at the Antalya Diplomacy Forum in Antalya province as part of Turkiye's efforts to mediate between the warring countries.

Kuleba said the Ukrainian side is “working very hard” to make the talks “as effective as possible.”

“I will say frankly that my expectations from these negotiations are limited, but we will definitely dwell on the cease-fire, the liberation of our lands, and our humanitarian problems. This is no longer a problem, it is a disaster created by the Russian army. I'm going to these talks with a strong position," he said.

Kuleba underlined that the outcome of the negotiations depends not only on the Ukrainian side but also “on what instructions and directives Mr. Lavrov is going to these talks with.”

Russian and Ukrainian delegations have met three times in Belarus, the most recent on Monday.

- Positions of both sides

Moscow has various conditions to end the war in Ukraine.

It wants Ukraine to amend its constitution to state unequivocally that Kyiv will not join any military alliance and that Crimea is Russian territory.

In February 2019, Ukraine's parliament approved amendments to the constitution that enshrine Ukraine's desire to join NATO.

Kyiv wants the war on its territory to end and Russian troops to completely withdraw from Ukrainian soil, including Crimea and Donbas.

The first round of negotiations took place on Feb. 28 in Gomel, Belarus near the Ukrainian border and lasted five hours.

The second round took place on March 3 and the third on March 7, both in the Brest region of Belarus.

Russia announced early Monday that it would declare a "temporary" cease-fire in the Ukrainian capital Kyiv and the cities of Mariupol, Kharkiv and Sumy from 10 a.m. local time (0700GMT) to ensure the evacuation of civilians.

Since Russia began its war against Ukraine on Feb. 24, it has drawn international condemnation, led to financial sanctions on Moscow and spurred an exodus of global companies from Russia.

At least 516 civilians have been killed and 908 others injured in Ukraine since Russia launched a war against its neighbor on Feb. 24, according to UN figures, with the real toll feared to be higher.

More than 2.1 million people have fled Ukraine to neighboring countries, according to the UN Refugee Agency.