Third Round Russia-Ukraine Negotiations Begin Today in Balarus

Russian and Ukrainian news sources confirm talk plans.

QUICK FACTS:
  • The third round of talks between Russia and Ukraine will begin today at 16:00 Kyiv time, according to Ukrainian news outlet Ukrinform.
  • Another Ukrainian outlet, however, claims the meeting could take place two hours earlier.
  • Mykhailo Podoliak, adviser to the head of the Ukrainian President’s Office, made the announcement on Twitter, according to Ukrinform.
  • “Negotiations with the Russian Federation. Third round. Beginning at 16.00 Kyiv time. Delegation unchanged,” he wrote.
  • Delegations from Moscow and Kiev have already arrived in western Belarus for the new round of talks, Russian news source RT News reports.
  • Speaking before the meeting, President Vladimir Putin’s aide, Vladimir Medinsky, told journalists that both sides would still focus on “the same issues.”
  • Those issues include the internal political situation in Ukraine, humanitarian aspects, and military issues, according to RT.
  • Conservative political commentator Jack Posobiec reported that the talks will take place in Brest, Belarus.
WHAT ELSE MEDINSKY SAID:
  • On Monday, Medinsky said Russia and Ukraine would try “once again” to work out the details of the humanitarian corridors scheme, which is meant to help evacuate civilians from combat zones.
  • “In all the cities, where we have committed to establishing those corridors, our forces and those of the Donbass [republics] have ceased fire,” the presidential aide added.
BACKGROUND:
  • The first round of the talks was held on February 28, four days into the large-scale military operation launched by Moscow to “demilitarize” and “denazify” Ukraine in the name of protecting the people of the two Donbass republics Russia has recently recognized, RT notes.
  • Ukraine’s President Zelenskyy denies his government is comitting genocide on its own population, as Russia’s President Putin claims.
  • During the second round, held on March 3, the sides agreed to establish humanitarian corridors to allow civilians in Ukraine to leave the combat zones.

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