Russia’s military forces yesterday blasted Ukraine’s capital region and other major cities, while on the diplomatic level, it said that a “neutral” Ukraine with its own army along the lines of Austria or Sweden was being looked at as a possible compromise.
With Russia’s ground advance on Kyiv stalled, despite the sustained bombardment, glimmers of optimism emerged that talks between the two sides could make progress.
Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergey Lavrov said that a “neutral” military status for Ukraine was being “seriously discussed” at the “businesslike” talks.
Photo: Reuters
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy described Russia’s demands for ending the war as becoming “more realistic.”
Zelenskiy said that Russian forces had been unable to move deeper into Ukrainian territory, but had continued their heavy shelling of cities.
Kyiv residents huddled in homes and shelters amid a citywide curfew that is to end today as Russia rained shells on areas in and around the city.
A 12-story apartment building in central Kyiv erupted in flames after being hit by shrapnel.
“Efforts are still needed, patience is needed,” Zelenskiy said in his nightly video address to the nation. “Any war ends with an agreement.”
British and US intelligence assessments supported the Ukrainian leader’s view of the fighting, saying that Russian ground forces were still about 15km from the center of Kyiv.
Hopes for diplomatic progress rose after Zelenskiy on Tuesday said that Ukraine realized it could not join NATO, his most explicit acknowledgment that the goal, enshrined in Ukraine’s constitution, was unlikely to be met.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has long depicted Ukraine’s NATO aspirations as a threat to Russia, something the alliance denies.
Lavrov welcomed Zelenskiy’s comment and said that “the businesslike spirit” starting to surface in the talks “gives hope that we can agree on this issue.”
“A neutral status is being seriously discussed in connection with security guarantees,” Lavrov said on Russian channel RBK TV. “There are concrete formulations that in my view are close to being agreed.”
Russia’s lead negotiator, Vladimir Medinsky, said that the sides are discussing a possible compromise idea for a future Ukraine with a smaller, non-aligned military.
Still, there was no immediate prospect of an end to the fighting.
Zelenskiy was preparing to make a direct appeal for more help in a rare speech by a foreign leader to the US Congress, with a White House official saying that US President Joe Biden was to announce US$800 million in new military assistance to Ukraine.
Russian forces have intensified fighting in the Kyiv suburbs, notably around the town of Bucha in the northwest and a highway leading west, regional leader Oleksiy Kuleba said.
Twelve towns around Kyiv were reported to be without water and six without heat.
Across the capital region, “kindergartens, museums, churches, residential blocks and engineering infrastructure are suffering from the endless firing,” Kuleba said.
He said that Russian troops were trying to cut off transportation links to the capital and to destroy logistical capabilities while planning a wide-ranging attack to seize the capital.
Russian forces occupied the city of Ivankiv, 80km north of Kyiv, and control the surrounding region on the border with Belarus, Kuleba said.
In addition to airstrikes and shelling by ground forces, Russian naval ships fired overnight on a town south of Mariupol on the Azov Sea and another near Odesa on the Black Sea, local officials said.
Ukraine also appeared to have successes, with satellite imagery from Planet Labs PBC showing helicopters and vehicles ablaze at the Russian-held Kherson International Airport and Air Base after an apparent Ukrainian strike on Tuesday.
Zelenskiy’s office said that Ukrainian forces thwarted Russian efforts to enter Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city.
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