New Delhi: In a major development in the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky has agreed to send a delegation to speak to Russia on the Ukrainian-Belarusian border, near the Pripyat River.
The Ukrainian president’s announcement, issued on his Telegram messaging channel, came hours after Kyiv had first rejected talks with Moscow in Belarus, accusing it of allowing Russian troops to enter Ukraine through its territory.
During a phone call with Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, President Volodymyr Zelensky agreed that the Ukrainian delegation would meet with the Russian delegation without preconditions on the Ukrainian-Belarusian border, near the Pripyat River. "We agreed that the Ukrainian delegation would meet with the Russian delegation without preconditions on the Ukrainian-Belarusian border, near the Pripyat River,” Zelenskyy said in a statement.
Lukashenko, according to Zelensky's office, has taken responsibility for ensuring that all planes, helicopters and missiles stationed on Belarusian territory remain on the ground during the Ukrainian delegation's travel, talks and return.
The development happened around the same time when president Vladimir Putin ordered Russian nuclear deterrent forces to be on alert amid tensions with the West over his invasion. Speaking at a meeting with his top officials, Putin asserted on Sunday that leading NATO powers had made “aggressive statements” along with the West imposing hard-hitting financial sanctions against Russia, including the president himself. Putin ordered the Russian defense minister and the chief of the military’s General Staff to put the nuclear deterrent forces in a “special regime of combat duty.”
Ukraine Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said that Putin's nuclear threat was an attempt to put pressure on Ukraine ahead of the negotiations with Russia. "Putin's order came shortly after it was announced that the two delegations were ready to meet," Kuleba said adding, "We will not succumb to this pressure."
