The Russian military said Tuesday that it had drastically reduced its military activity near the Ukraine capital of Kyiv and the northern city of Chernihiv as talks with Ukraine aimed at ending the war entered the “practical” stage.
Russia and Ukraine began face-to-face talks Tuesday in Turkey as the United Nations pressed for a cease-fire for Russia’s brutal invasion. The talks took place in the Turkish presidential office in Istanbul and lasted more than three hours, Russia’s Tass reported.
Alexander Fomin, Russia’s deputy minister of defense, said the military cutbacks were made to improve conditions for the talks. Fomin said that “a decision was made to drastically reduce the military activity on the approaches to Kiev and Chernihiv.”
On Monday, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres launched an initiative to explore “a humanitarian cease-fire in Ukraine,” echoing Ukraine’s urgent pleas. Guterres said he asked Undersecretary-General Martin Griffiths, the head of the U.N.’s worldwide humanitarian operations, to look into a cease-fire between Russia and Ukraine.
Ukrainian news outlet Suspline News reported Monday that Ukrainian officials were hoping to agree to a cease-fire to allow aid delivery to Ukraine and pave the way for political negotiations to end the war.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said the warring nations had a “historic responsibility” to stop the fighting.
“We believe that there will be no losers in a just peace,” Erdogan said as the talks began in Istanbul. “Prolonging the conflict is not in anyone’s interest.”
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Latest developments
►Seven people were killed when a Russian missile slammed into a nine-story government building in Mykolayiv, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Tuesday. He said 22 people were wounded.
►President Joe Biden said Monday that he was voicing his “moral outrage,” not a U.S. policy change, with his remark last weekend that Russian President Vladimir Putin “cannot remain in power.”
►The Pentagon is sending six Navy jets that specialize in suppressing enemy air defense to bolster NATO’s eastern flank, Pentagon press secretary John Kirby said.
►Less than five weeks since the Russian invasion of Ukraine, more than 3.9 million refugees have been forced to flee the country, making this the fastest-growing refugee crisis since World War II, according to the United Nations refugee agency.
Ukraine’s defensive strategy could add to peril facing civilians
Ukraine’s defense against Russian attacks could be increasing the risk to civilians in the war-torn nation, experts tell The Washington Post. Most neighborhoods in Ukraine’s cities have become “militarized,” making them potential targets for Russian forces, the Post says. Russia has been pounding some cities, and Ukrainians have responded by deploying air defense systems, heavy weaponry, soldiers and volunteers to residential areas. All are rich targets for Russian missiles.
“I am very reluctant to suggest that Ukraine is responsible for civilian casualties because Ukraine is fighting to defend its country from an aggressor,” William Schabas, an international law professor at Middlesex University in London, told the Post. “But to the extent that Ukraine brings the battlefield to the civilian neighborhoods, it increases the danger to civilians.”
Ukraine takes back Irpin
Ukrainian forces were continuing their efforts to reclaim territory swept up in the Russian offensive. The Ukraine military retook Irpin, northwest of Kyiv, from Russian troops, who were regrouping to take the area back, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said late Monday as he sought to rally the country.
“We still have to fight, we have to endure,” Zelenskyy said in his nighttime video address to the nation. “We can’t express our emotions now. We can’t raise expectations, simply so that we don’t burn out.”
The Ukrainian government said it was operating three humanitarian corridors Tuesday to move civilians out of the besieged port of Mariupol and two Russian-occupied cities in the south.
Cyberattack hits Ukraine’s national telecommunications provider
A “massive” cyberattack knocked Ukraine’s national telecommunications provider Ukrtelecom almost completely offline Monday morning, and outages persisted into the evening. Network monitors said it was the most severe outage since Russia invaded Ukraine over a month ago. Most Ukrainian customers were cut off from service so Ukraine’s military could continue using it, the chair of Ukraine’s state service for special communication, Yurii Shchyhol, said.
Shchyhol blamed “the enemy” for the cyberattack, refraining from specifically naming Russia.
– Celina Tebor
Many in Middle East see hypocrisy in Western embrace of Ukraine
Within days of the Russian invasion, Western countries invoked international law, imposed crippling sanctions, began welcoming refugees with open arms and cheered on Ukraine’s armed resistance.
The response has elicited outrage across the Middle East, where many see a glaring double standard in how the West responds to international conflicts.
“We have seen every means we were told could not be activated for over 70 years deployed in less than seven days,” Palestinian Foreign Minister Riad Malki told a security forum in Turkey earlier this month.
“Amazing hypocrisy,” he said.
The Biden administration said Wednesday that the United States has assessed that Russian forces committed war crimes in Ukraine and would work with others to prosecute offenders. But the U.S. is not a member of the International Criminal Court and staunchly opposes any international probe of its own conduct or of its ally, Israel.
Contributing: The Associated Press