Lavrov welcomed Zelenskyy’s comment and said “the businesslike spirit” starting to surface in the talks “gives hope that we can agree on this issue.”
Meanwhile, defense ministers from NATO member nations met in Brussels on Wednesday ahead of an emergency summit of the military alliance next week. 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.
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, according to local officials. Hospital workers found themselves on two frontlines, battling COVID-19 in intensive care units as war rages outside. Air raid sirens go off multiple times daily, forcing fragile patients into the Kharkiv Regional Clinical Infectious Diseases Hospital's makeshift bomb shelter, the hospital's director, Dr. Pavel Nartov, said.
A Russian TV employee is likely to face charges after holding a protest sign on camera during a broadcast that read "No war," and "don't believe the propaganda." Author Anatol Lieven says Russians are feeling fear of speaking out and facing repression.
What’s there to negotiate? Russia needs to fucking stop