There was no breakthrough after the foreign ministers of Russia and Ukraine met. Three people were killed in a Russian strike against a maternity hospital on Wednesday, Ukrainian officials said, reports The NewYork Times.
Failed to reach an agreement
The top diplomats from Ukraine and Russia failed to reach an agreement to end the war in Ukraine or ease the worsening humanitarian crisis, concluding a meeting in Turkey on Thursday with little sign that the two-week-old conflict will end soon.
No progress
Speaking to reporters after the meeting in the Turkish resort of Antalya, Dmytro Kuleba, Ukraine’s foreign minister, said that “we did not make progress” in reaching a cease-fire, but “agreed to continue efforts to seek a solution to the humanitarian issues on the ground.”
Ready for further discussions
“I will be ready to meet again in this format if there are prospects for a substantial discussion and for seeking solutions”, Mr. Kuleba said.
But remarks by Sergey V. Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister, indicated that Moscow’s position on the war was not softening.
Military operation for own security
“We are not planning to attack other countries,” he told a Turkish reporter. “We didn’t attack Ukraine, either.” He was repeating Russian claims that the country was forced to conduct a “special military operation” in Ukraine to assure its own security.
The major developments
In just 14 days, Russian missiles and artillery have killed hundreds of civilians in Ukraine. It has set off the worst refugee crisis on the continent since World War II and forced millions more to seek shelter in crawl spaces and basements. Whole towns have been destroyed, city blocks reduced to rubble, schools bombed and nuclear facilities compromised.
Here are other major developments:
At least three people were killed after a Russian missile strike devastated a maternity hospital in the besieged southern city of Mariupol on Wednesday, a statement from the local government said. People are cutting down trees for fuel and digging trenches for mass graves in the city, which has been encircled by Russian forces for nearly a week.
The British government on Thursday imposed sanctions on two of Russia’s biggest oligarchs, Roman Abramovich, the owner of the Chelsea soccer club, and Oleg Deripaska, a billionaire aluminum magnate with ties to Mr. Putin.
The leaders of the European Union member states will meet on Thursday in Versailles, France, 103 years after world leaders gathered there to sign the treaty that ended the First World War. They are expected to discuss Ukraine’s appeal to join the bloc.
The U.S. House approved its spending bill, which includes about $13.6 billion in aid to Ukraine. The money is almost evenly split between military and humanitarian aid and is more than twice what was originally proposed.
More companies are pulling out of Russia, including the hotel chains Hyatt and Hilton. Hitachi said it was suspending exports to Russia and pausing manufacturing. The New York Times is tracking the pullouts.
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Source: NBCNews
