Cavusoglu, who first met separately with each of the other two foreign ministers, said the meeting was intended to pave the way for a meeting between the Ukrainian and Russian presidents to be facilitated by the Turkish leader.
Kuleba also said that he was going to propose to Lavrov a meeting between the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky, and the Russian, Vladimir Putin, reported the AFP news agency.
Turkey, which is a member of the NATO, it has cultivated good relations with both Russia and Ukraine.
The government of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has positioned itself as neutral, in an attempt to facilitate a negotiation between the warring parties.
Turkey called Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which began on February 24, “illegal” and “unacceptable” but also said it supported neither Ukraine nor Russia.
War in Europe: Russian bombing continues on Ukraine
Russian forces today attacked military and civilian targets on the outskirts of the capital Kiev with artillery and intensified their siege on other Ukrainian cities, just hours before the Russian and Ukrainian foreign ministers began the highest-level meeting between the two countries since beginning of the Russian invasion, two weeks ago.
The meeting between the Russian and Ukrainian ministers, Sergei Lavrov and Dmytro Kuleba, respectively, took place in southern Turkey one day after a Russian airstrike on a mother and child hospital that injured women in labor and buried children under rubble in the southern Ukrainian port city of Mariupol.
The Mariupol municipality said on Monday that three people, including a girl, were killed in the attack, which drew widespread international condemnation, and that 17 others were wounded in the shelling.
Two more hospitals were attacked today in Zhytomyr, a city of 260,000 west of Kiev, one of them also a pediatric hospital, Mayor Serhii Sukhomlyn said on Facebook. The official said there were no injuries.
The World Health Organization (WHO) said it had already been able to confirm 18 attacks on medical facilities in Ukraine, with 10 dead and 16 injured, although it was not clear whether it included victims of the hospital bombing in Mariupol, a city of 430,000. inhabitants that has been under siege by Russian forces since last week.
In Turkey, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu was participating in the meeting between his Russian and Ukrainian counterparts, which was taking place on the sidelines of a forum on diplomacy in the city of Antalya, on the Mediterranean Sea, the AFP news agency reported.
The Turkish minister, who first met separately with each of the other two foreign ministers, said the meeting was intended to pave the way for a meeting between the presidents of Ukraine and Russia, Volodimir Zelensky and Vladimir Putin, to be facilitated by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Erdogan said yesterday that he hoped the foreign ministers’ meeting would “open the door to a permanent ceasefire”, although Kuleba said he did not have high expectations.
Hours before the meeting, the Ukrainian deputy prime minister said Russia had fired artillery on the western outskirts of Kiev, first firing at military targets and then at residential areas.
Deputy Prime Minister Vadym Denysenko told Ukraine’s Rada TV channel that residents of the area had a “rather difficult” night because of the Russian attacks.
Last night, the Ukrainian General Staff indicated that Russia was continuing its “offensive operation” to surround northern Kiev, but also on other fronts, redoubling its attacks against several more cities in the east, north and south of the country.
A large column of Russian tanks and armor advancing on Kiev was only 15 kilometers from the capital yesterday after making little progress since entering the country from the North on the first day of the invasion on February 24. as reported by AFP, citing unidentified Ukrainian soldiers.
Yesterday, Russia and Ukraine agreed to temporary truces to allow civilians trapped in combat zones to leave.
According to Zelensky, at least 35,000 people were evacuated from Sumy, a town north of Kiev, and other suburbs of the capital, and from Energodar, in southeastern Ukraine.
The military chief of the Sumy region, Dmytro Jivitsky, said today that two women and a 13-year-old boy were killed in an overnight shelling.
He also noted that three corridors would be opened today to evacuate more civilians from the area to the city of Poltava, located 170 kilometers to the southwest.
It is estimated that thousands of people, including military and civilians, have died since President Putin announced the beginning of the invasion with the declared goal of protecting Russian-speaking Ukrainians from the Kiev government and preventing Ukraine from joining NATO, as the United States wants. Joined.
The actual number of casualties is uncertain, varies as reported by each side, and grows as fighting intensifies.
The UN said yesterday that it had evidence of 516 deaths, including 37 children, and 908 injuries, including 50 minors.
More than 2 million people have fled Ukraine to neighboring countries since the start of hostilities, according to the UN refugee agency (UNHCR).
Source: Ambito
David William is a talented author who has made a name for himself in the world of writing. He is a professional author who writes on a wide range of topics, from general interest to opinion news. David is currently working as a writer at 24 hours worlds where he brings his unique perspective and in-depth research to his articles, making them both informative and engaging.
