Negotiators are discussing a “compromise” that Ukraine should become a neutral state comparable to Sweden
Russian and Ukrainian negotiators are discussing a “compromise” that Ukraine should become a neutral state comparable to Sweden, as opposed to the country joining NATO.
“This is an option that is being discussed now and that can be considered a compromise,” Dimitry Peskov said this morning.
If Ukraine were to adopt a model similar to the Swedish one, it would probably be able to retain its army but would not be allowed to receive foreign bases or troops.
Over the past two days, Ukrainian and Russian officials have sounded more optimistic as they discussed the ongoing peace talks.
Also this morning, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said some parts of a potential deal were nearing completion after discussions on Ukrainian neutrality.
“Neutral status is now being seriously discussed together, of course, with security guarantees,” Lavrov said.
On the Ukrainian side, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said last night that Russia’s demands had become “more realistic” in recent times.
“Efforts are still needed, patience is needed. “Every war ends with an agreement,” he said.
Meanwhile, Russia’s military forces blew up Ukraine’s capital region and other major cities on Wednesday as they tried to crush a Ukrainian defense that has frustrated their progress almost three weeks after the invasion.
Russia rained shells in areas around Kyiv and in the city, where a 12-story apartment building burst into flames after being hit by shrapnel.
Mr Zelenskyy said Russian forces had not been able to penetrate deeper into Ukrainian territory but had continued their heavy shelling of cities. British and American intelligence services supported his view of the fighting.
A senior U.S. defense official said the Russians are using long-range fire to hit civilian targets inside Kyiv with increasing frequency but that their ground forces are making little or no progress around the country.
He said Russian troops were still about nine miles (15 km) from the capital.
Mr Zelenskyy was preparing to immediately appeal for more help in a rare speech by a foreign leader to the US Congress on Wednesday.
At the same time, defense ministers from NATO member states planned to meet in Brussels.
Developments on the diplomatic front and in place took place when the number of people fleeing Ukraine in the midst of Europe’s heaviest fighting since World War II exceeded three million.
The artillery fire that hit the 12-story apartment building in central Kyiv on Wednesday wiped out the top floor and ignited a fire that sent plumes of smoke over the area, according to a statement and photos released by the Kyiv emergency services.
The neighboring building was also damaged. Authorities reported two victims, without saying if they were injured or killed.
Russian forces have intensified fighting in the suburbs of Kiev, especially around the northwestern city of Bucha and the highway leading west toward Zhytomyr, said regional leader Oleksiy Kuleba.
Twelve cities around Kyiv were reported to be without water and six without heat.
Across the capital region, “kindergartens, museums, churches, residential areas and technical infrastructure are suffering from the endless fire,” Kuleba said.
He said Russian troops were trying to cut off transport links to the capital and destroy logistics capabilities while planning a major attack to take the capital.
Russian forces managed to occupy the city of Ivankiv, 80 km north of Kyiv, and control the surrounding region on the border with Belarus, Kuleba added.
In addition to air strikes and shelling by ground forces, Russian naval vessels fired overnight at a city south of Mariupol on Lake Azov and another near Odesa on the Black Sea, according to local officials.
Ukraine also appeared to be successful, with satellite images from Planet Labs PBC analyzed by the Associated Press showing helicopters and vehicles on fire at the Russian-held Kherson International Airport and Air Base following a suspected Ukrainian attack on Tuesday.
Zelensky’s office said Ukrainian forces thwarted Russian efforts to break into Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, which has been hit by almost uninterrupted strikes for the past 24 hours. A powerful explosion thundered over the city overnight.
Hospital workers were on two front lines fighting Covid-19 in intensive care units while the war raged outside.
Air attack sirens go off several times a day, forcing vulnerable patients into Kharkiv Regional Clinical Infectious Disease Hospital’s temporary bomb shelter, said the hospital’s director, Dr. Pavel Nartov.
Dealing with intensive care patients on ventilators is difficult and dangerous given the dangers of exposing oxygen tanks to bombings and shrapnel, he added.
– The bombing takes place from morning to evening. Thankfully, a bomb has not yet hit our hospital. But it can strike at any time. “
Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov claimed that Russian forces had destroyed 111 Ukrainian aircraft, 160 drones and more than 1,000 tanks or other military vehicles since the start of what Russia calls its “special military operation” in Ukraine.
The Russian military’s daily public statements on the war focus almost exclusively on the fighting in the separatist-controlled Donetsk and Luhansk regions, and on Ukrainian military targets, without acknowledging attacks on civilians.
Ukraine’s Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk on Wednesday expressed dismay at reports that Russian forces had taken 400 doctors and civilians hostage at a hospital in the besieged southern port city of Mariupol, where the war has already caused some of the worst suffering.
The Russians are using the hospital as a firing position, she said, adding that Russian forces have fired on humanitarian convoys and gathering places for evacuees, making it difficult to open relief and evacuation convoys after thousands managed to leave Mariupol on Tuesday.
Ukrainian officials gave various figures on how many people have been successfully evacuated from Mariupol so far and how many have made their way to Zaporizhzhia, a city 141 miles (227 km) west designated as the end of the evacuation route.
Regional leader Pavlo Kyrylenko said on Tuesday that Russian troops forced about 400 people from nearby homes into the regional intensive care unit and used them and about 100 patients and staff as human shields by not allowing them to leave.
He said the shelling had already severely damaged the hospital’s main building, but medical staff had treated patients in makeshift wards in the basement.
Doctors from other Mariupol hospitals made a video to tell the world about the horrors they have seen.
“We do not want to be heroes and martyrs posthumously,” said one woman.
She added that it is insufficient to refer to patients being treated as injured. “It has been worn by arms and legs, sunken eyes, bodies torn to pieces, the inside falling out,” she said.