Berliner Boersenzeitung - Russia, Ukraine set for face-to-face peace talks

EUR -
AED 4.322512
AFN 81.008431
ALL 97.610159
AMD 449.741076
ANG 2.106185
AOA 1079.159835
ARS 1481.251332
AUD 1.778449
AWG 2.12125
AZN 2.003676
BAM 1.956004
BBD 2.367977
BDT 142.954879
BGN 1.954562
BHD 0.44362
BIF 3495.323193
BMD 1.176837
BND 1.498369
BOB 8.103878
BRL 6.492024
BSD 1.172722
BTN 101.327116
BWP 15.651629
BYN 3.838111
BYR 23066.014699
BZD 2.355775
CAD 1.600893
CDF 3396.35309
CHF 0.932803
CLF 0.028445
CLP 1115.888998
CNY 8.426868
CNH 8.413905
COP 4754.423438
CRC 592.461663
CUC 1.176837
CUP 31.186193
CVE 110.275072
CZK 24.585343
DJF 208.621713
DKK 7.463645
DOP 70.987388
DZD 152.555099
EGP 57.771804
ERN 17.652562
ETB 160.238378
FJD 2.628111
FKP 0.870508
GBP 0.867253
GEL 3.189247
GGP 0.870508
GHS 12.255119
GIP 0.870508
GMD 84.732712
GNF 10175.059015
GTQ 9.000899
GYD 245.223439
HKD 9.237621
HNL 30.708196
HRK 7.532461
HTG 153.884709
HUF 398.525381
IDR 19160.091087
ILS 3.920552
IMP 0.870508
INR 101.5862
IQD 1536.259893
IRR 49559.564856
ISK 142.209258
JEP 0.870508
JMD 188.119579
JOD 0.834323
JPY 171.969496
KES 151.462488
KGS 102.823942
KHR 4700.449279
KMF 494.85638
KPW 1059.21497
KRW 1609.28981
KWD 0.358947
KYD 0.977293
KZT 631.140326
LAK 25280.631195
LBP 105081.740809
LKR 353.806824
LRD 235.133474
LSL 20.593843
LTL 3.474895
LVL 0.711857
LYD 6.34166
MAD 10.546843
MDL 19.831064
MGA 5180.539188
MKD 61.566669
MMK 2470.300458
MNT 4220.581008
MOP 9.481487
MRU 46.545844
MUR 53.240152
MVR 18.118785
MWK 2033.511647
MXN 21.828101
MYR 4.963309
MZN 75.27023
NAD 20.593668
NGN 1794.147061
NIO 43.154491
NOK 11.895829
NPR 162.123874
NZD 1.944394
OMR 0.452496
PAB 1.172727
PEN 4.180135
PGK 4.929513
PHP 66.643719
PKR 333.873949
PLN 4.25242
PYG 8784.399462
QAR 4.27529
RON 5.072876
RSD 117.135316
RUB 92.264883
RWF 1695.176433
SAR 4.414972
SBD 9.750211
SCR 17.021093
SDG 706.681753
SEK 11.192713
SGD 1.501368
SHP 0.924809
SLE 27.008153
SLL 24677.698279
SOS 670.169751
SRD 42.892196
STD 24358.159906
STN 24.50255
SVC 10.261068
SYP 15301.194295
SZL 20.584142
THB 37.932992
TJS 11.252223
TMT 4.1307
TND 3.423613
TOP 2.756275
TRY 47.636612
TTD 7.958761
TWD 34.451933
TZS 3065.661464
UAH 49.037504
UGX 4210.402439
USD 1.176837
UYU 47.144706
UZS 14898.550633
VES 141.542248
VND 30766.650779
VUV 141.29205
WST 3.102248
XAF 656.025279
XAG 0.030177
XAU 0.000349
XCD 3.180462
XCG 2.11352
XDR 0.815885
XOF 656.025279
XPF 119.331742
YER 283.55937
ZAR 20.653556
ZMK 10592.964164
ZMW 27.238339
ZWL 378.94119
  • SCU

    0.0000

    12.72

    0%

  • RYCEF

    0.2000

    13.5

    +1.48%

  • RBGPF

    0.9700

    68

    +1.43%

  • RIO

    0.2900

    64.62

    +0.45%

  • CMSC

    -0.0400

    22.43

    -0.18%

  • GSK

    1.0100

    38.03

    +2.66%

  • SCS

    0.2100

    10.68

    +1.97%

  • CMSD

    -0.0300

    22.89

    -0.13%

  • RELX

    0.4100

    53.09

    +0.77%

  • NGG

    -1.6300

    72.65

    -2.24%

  • BTI

    0.1500

    52.37

    +0.29%

  • BCC

    1.2000

    88.35

    +1.36%

  • VOD

    -0.0200

    11.3

    -0.18%

  • JRI

    0.0000

    13.21

    0%

  • AZN

    2.5200

    73

    +3.45%

  • BCE

    0.2200

    24.6

    +0.89%

  • BP

    0.1900

    32.71

    +0.58%

Russia, Ukraine set for face-to-face peace talks
Russia, Ukraine set for face-to-face peace talks

Russia, Ukraine set for face-to-face peace talks

Russian and Ukrainian negotiators will resume face-to-face peace talks as soon as Monday, probing whether a near-stalemate in fighting has forced Moscow to temper its demands.

Text size:

President Volodymyr Zelensky hailed the new negotiations, saying he hoped they would bring peace "without delay", and lamented a month-long Russian invasion that has already killed thousands and devastated numerous Ukrainian cities.

The new talks are set to start in Turkey on either Monday or Tuesday, with Zelensky desperate to halt the bombardment of cities like Mariupol, where officials said the situation is "catastrophic".

About 170,000 civilians remain trapped in Mariupol without adequate food, water or medicine, as the southern port city is being turned "into dust" by Russian shelling, according to Ukraine's foreign ministry.

France, Greece and Turkey are hoping to launch a "humanitarian operation" to evacuate civilians within days, according to French President Emmanuel Macron, who has sought an OK from Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin.

Several previous rounds of peace talks have failed to halt the fighting or overcome fundamental disagreements about Kyiv's alignment with the West and Russia's occupation of Ukrainian territory.

But with Russia's much-larger military humbled by fierce Ukrainian resistance and forced to abandon efforts to capture Kyiv, there is renewed hope for talks.

"Our goal is obvious -- peace and the restoration of normal life in our native state as soon as possible," Zelensky said in a late-night video message that also set out his negotiating red lines.

"Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity are beyond doubt. Effective security guarantees for our state are mandatory," he said.

Zelensky has previously indicated he is "carefully" considering a Russian demand of Ukrainian "neutrality".

"This point of the negotiations is understandable to me and it is being discussed, it is being carefully studied," Zelensky said during an interview with several independent Russian news organisations.

Putin has avoided being precise about the goals of his invasion, stating only that he wanted to "demilitarise and denazify" but not occupy Ukraine.

Commentators hope that vagueness will now give him more room to accept an agreement, claim victory and end the war.

The UN estimates that at least 1,100 civilians have died and more than 10 million have been displaced in a devastating war that has gone on far longer than Moscow expected.

- Spanner in the works? -

It remains to be seen whether talks will be hampered by US President Joe Biden's shock declaration that Putin "cannot remain in power".

The ad-libbed remark sparked outrage in Moscow and sowed widespread concern in Washington and abroad, seeming to undercut Biden's own efforts on a European visit to underscore a carefully crafted unity in support of Kyiv.

Asked by reporters Sunday if he had been calling for regime change, Biden responded: "No." German Chancellor Olaf Scholz also told media that was "not the objective of NATO, nor that of the US president."

Macron warned that any escalation "in words or action" could harm his efforts in talks with Putin to agree on evacuating civilians from the devastated port city of Mariupol.

Neither intense diplomacy nor steadily mounting sanctions have persuaded Putin to halt the war.

- Divided nation -

Many in Ukraine remain suspicious that Moscow could use the talks as an opportunity to regroup and fix serious tactical and logistical problems in the Russian military.

Ukrainian intelligence chief Kyrylo Budanov said Putin could still be aiming to divide the country in a Korea-like fashion -- to "impose a separation line between the occupied and unoccupied regions".

"After a failure to capture Kyiv and remove Ukraine's government, Putin is changing his main operational directions. These are south and east," he wrote on Facebook. "It will be an attempt to set up South and North Koreas in Ukraine."

Russia has de facto control over the southern region of Crimea and the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Lugansk republics in the country's eastern Donbas region.

The head of Ukraine's Lugansk separatist region has indicated it may hold a referendum on becoming part of Russia.

Resistance in besieged Mariupol is the main obstacle preventing Moscow from gaining unbroken control of land from the Donbas to the Crimea -- its residents have recounted harrowing scenes of destruction and death.

- Counterattacks -

But it is clear Russia's original hopes of sweeping across Ukraine undeterred have faded.

Russian forces have made little progress in capturing key cities, prompting a shift to aerial bombardment of civilians.

With Western-supplied weapons, Ukraine's fighters continue to hold off -- or even push back -- the Russian army.

In the southern town of Mykolaiv, under heavy assault for weeks, the bombardments appeared to be easing.

That is a welcome respite for locals like young Sofia, who suffered head injuries during shelling in early March near Mykolaiv.

"Now I can move my arms and legs a little. I still can't get up without my mother's help, but hopefully I can leave soon," she told AFP.

The frontlines appeared to have receded from Mykolaiv, with a counteroffensive being mounted in Kherson, about 80 kilometres (50 miles) to the southeast.

Recent shelling killed two people in a village near Kherson, the only significant city the Russian army claims to have seized.

In Kherson itself, about 500 people took part in anti-Russian demonstrations on Sunday.

Kyrylo, a paramedic who spoke with AFP by telephone, said Russians dispersed the peaceful rally with tear gas and stun grenades.

It released images showing Ukrainian soldiers and civilians among heavily damaged buildings and what appeared to be abandoned Russian military equipment.

Hollywood A-listers noted the toll on civilians with a moment of silence at Sunday's Oscars gala in Los Angeles, urging support for "the people of Ukraine currently facing invasion, conflict and prejudice within their own borders".

(Y.Yildiz--BBZ)