Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko announced that talks with Russia have resumed, as Kiev and Moscow remain locked in a tense standoff. But the Russians are still deploying bombs around Ukraine’s east-west divide, despite an easing of tensions on the ground.
Ukraine, Kyiv— According to Ukrainian officials, a Russian shell damaged a residential building in northern Kyiv, killing two people. Diplomatic attempts to stop Russia’s conflict in Ukraine started Monday.
Video conferencing was used to bring Russian and Ukrainian negotiators together. Jake Sullivan, the United States’ national security adviser, was also meeting with his Chinese counterpart in Rome after urging Beijing to reject what Washington has characterized as Russian requests for Chinese assistance in the fight.
On Monday afternoon, Mykhailo Podolyak, a senior advisor to Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky, indicated that discussions between Kyiv and Moscow had come to a halt and would continue on Tuesday.
“The discussions have been put on hold until tomorrow due to a technical issue. Mr. Podolyak remarked on Twitter, “For more work in the working subgroups and clarification of particular terminology.” “Negotiations are still ongoing.”
Mr. Podolyak had previously said that the negotiators will concentrate on negotiating a cease-fire, the prompt evacuation of Russian soldiers, and assurances of security for the nation.
Satellite photographs of Mariupol before and after shelling revealed devastation, while Ukrainian officials claimed shelling damaged a high-rise in Kyiv; award-winning American journalist Brent Renaud was slain; peace negotiations continue as Zelensky pushes for a meeting with Putin. Ukraine’s State Emergency Services/Associated Press
According to persons familiar with the situation, the White House is considering sending Vice President Joe Biden to Europe in the coming weeks as part of the administration’s reaction to the conflict. Last week, Vice President Kamala Harris visited Poland and Romania, where she reaffirmed the United States’ support for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and the people of Ukraine.
Russia has gained land in the south of Ukraine over three weeks into the conflict, but the fighting has come to a halt around the capital, Kyiv, and elsewhere. In an attempt to wear down Ukrainian resistance, its soldiers have increasingly resorted to targeting residential areas and civilian infrastructure.
Two people were killed and 12 others were injured when a fire broke out in a nine-story building in Kyiv’s Obolon area on Monday, according to the Ukrainian military. The structure was struck by enemy shelling, according to Ukraine’s official emergency agency.
Officials from the United States claimed on Sunday that Russia has requested military weaponry and other support from China for its war campaign. In addition to cautioning Beijing against military support, Washington said that if China attempted to assist Russia in evading US sanctions, it would be dealt with harshly.
On Monday, a crowd gathered outside a damaged apartment building in Kyiv.
Getty Images/AFP/Getty Images/aris messinis
In the Kyiv area, a temporary hospital has been set up within a bomb shelter.
VALENTYN OGIRENKO/REUTERS/VALENTYN OGIRENKO/REUTERS/VALENTYN OGIRENKO/RE
Mr. Sullivan told CNN on Sunday, “It is a concern of ours, and we have indicated to Beijing that we will not stand by and enable any nation to pay Russia for its losses as a result of the economic sanctions.”
China has said that it understands Russia’s security concerns used to justify its incursion. It also voted no in a United Nations resolution last month denouncing Russian aggression. Beijing, on the other hand, has taken steps to distance itself from the war and has repeatedly called for a halt to the bloodshed.
Dmitry Peskov, a Kremlin spokesman, said Russia has not requested China for help in Ukraine and that the country’s “special military operation,” as it is known, is “moving according to plan and will be finished on schedule and in full.”
On Monday, Zhao Lijian, a spokeswoman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry, dismissed news of the Russian proposal as false and harmful.
Mr. Zhao said, “The greatest goal today is for all sides to exhibit caution in order to de-escalate and calm down the situation rather than fuelling the tensions.”
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz was scheduled to visit Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Ankara later Monday. Mr. Erdogan has maintained cordial ties with both Ukraine and Russia, refusing to join Western sanctions on Moscow and leaving Turkish airways open to Russian flights. Simultaneously, he has approved arms shipments to Ukraine.
On Monday, a Ukrainian police officer stood watch in Kyiv.
Photo credit: Shutterstock/Roman Pilipey
On Monday, a view from the hamlet of Kalynivka, Ukraine, just outside of Kyiv.
MARKO DJURICA/REUTERS PHOTO
Mr. Scholz, according to German authorities, would look into potential concessions between the two warring groups that may lead to a cease-fire deal. Last week, the foreign ministers of Ukraine and Russia met in Turkey, a NATO member, for a first round of high-level negotiations that produced no results.
While the various front lines in Ukraine remained largely unchanged over the weekend, a Russian airstrike killed 35 people at a Ukrainian military training center near the Polish border on Sunday, just one day after Moscow warned the West that it would consider arms deliveries to Ukraine as legitimate targets.
The hit, which took place 10 miles from Poland, signified a step up in Moscow’s effort. A large portion of Western military aid—one of the largest arms transfers in history—passes through Poland and into western Ukraine, part of the fine line the US and its NATO allies are walking between militarily assisting Ukraine while avoiding providing troops or enforcing the no-fly zone that Ukraine has requested.
Ukraine no longer controls these areas as of Friday.
Invasion forces’ direction
Russia-controlled or associated countries
The main refugee crossing points
Chernobyl
It is not in use.
Putin recognizes Ukraine as an independent country.
Under the command of
separatists
Ukraine no longer controls these areas as of Friday.
Invasion forces’ direction
Russia-controlled or associated countries
Putin recognizes Ukraine as an independent country.
The main refugee crossing points
Chernobyl
It is not in use.
Under the command of
separatists
Ukraine no longer controls these areas as of Friday.
Invasion forces’ direction
Russia-controlled or associated countries
The main refugee crossing points
Putin recognizes Ukraine as an independent country.
Chernobyl
It is not in use.
Under the command of
separatists
Ukraine no longer controls these areas as of Friday.
Invasion forces’ direction
Russia-controlled or associated countries
The main refugee crossing points
Putin recognizes Ukraine as an independent country.
Ukraine no longer controls these areas as of Friday.
Invasion forces’ direction
Russia-controlled or associated countries
The main refugee crossing points
Putin recognizes Ukraine as an independent country.
The bombing raises the prospect of the conflict spilling onto NATO territory, which the US has warned will be viewed as a NATO attack. Mr. Sullivan said Sunday on CBS News’ “Face the Nation” that any assault on Poland would bring “the whole might of the NATO alliance to bear in reacting to it.”
Armaments given by the United States and its European allies to Ukraine, particularly antitank and antiaircraft weaponry, have played a key role in halting the advance of Russian ground soldiers, who have suffered high losses in the north as they attempted to surround Kyiv.
The strikes in western Ukraine come as Russia’s offensives near Kyiv and Kharkiv, in eastern Ukraine, look to be stalling, with Moscow’s soldiers shifting their focus to civilian infrastructure and residential areas from afar.
Crowds gathered Saturday at a railway station in Lviv, Ukraine’s westernmost city.
For The Wall Street Journal, Justyna Mielnikiewicz/MAPS
A verse from Ukraine’s national song was placed on a billboard in Lviv.
For The Wall Street Journal, Justyna Mielnikiewicz/MAPS
Russia has made speedier progress in the south, aided by its previous military presence on the Crimean Peninsula, which it seized in 2014, and by more suitable terrain.
Russian government officials said Monday that Crimea and the Ukrainian region of Donbas Under the command of pro-Russia separatists had been connected by a land corridor, which if true would offer Moscow wider control over a greater swath of mainland Ukraine.
Between the two territories, Russians have hammered Mariupol, forcing its troops into a tighter battle zone.
The United States and its NATO partners have been deploying Javelins, Stingers, and other weaponry to Ukraine to aid in its defense against Russian strikes. Shelby Holliday of the Wall Street Journal describes how some of these weapons function and why experts believe they are valuable to Ukrainian troops. Photo courtesy of Ukrainian Defense Ministry Press/AFP/Getty Images.
“Crimea and Donbas are now connected by a land corridor through the territory of Ukraine,” according to Georgy Muradov, Russia’s permanent representative to Crimea and deputy prime minister of the Crimean government, quoted by Russia’s state news agency RIA Novosti, and “the highway from Crimea to Mariupol has been taken under control.”
The Ukrainian administration denied that the Russians had acquired such a route.
“In actuality, Russian forces are still a long way from constructing the corridor,” said Oleksiy Arestovych, a presidential advisor in Ukraine. “It is vital for Mariupol to collapse in order for such a ‘corridor’ to operate.”
He said that the Russians would also have to deal with civilian opposition in the areas that they had ostensibly seized. “Nothing of the type has been observed thus far.”
—This article was co-written by Bojan Pancevski.
Alan Cullison can be reached at [email protected]
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