Foreign Ministers of Russia, Ukraine meet in Turkey - no progress

this was the first time the two foreign ministers have met since russia launched an attack on ukraine on 24 february, with president vladimir putin arguing the country needs to be "denazified".

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt  Çavuşoğlu was also participating in the meeting. He has said the aim of the meeting is to pave the way for a meeting between the Russian and Ukrainian presidents that would be facilitated by Turkey’s president.

NATO-member Turkey, which has cultivated close ties with both Russia and Ukraine, is trying to balance relations with both nations. It has positioned itself as a neutral party, seeking to facilitate negotiations between the warring sides, AP reported.

Turkey has criticized Russia’s military actions in Ukraine as “unlawful” and “unacceptable” but it has also said Ankara would not give up on either Russia or Ukraine.

Kuleba does not sound positive, says Ukraine will not surrender

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba told a post-meeting press conference he is ready to meet with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov again if there are prospects for a "substantial discussion" - but his update on this morning's talks is not positive, Sky News reported.

Ukraine is ready for diplomacy but they are also ready to defend themselves, he said, stressing that they will not surrender.

He said the broad narrative from Lavrov during their meeting was that Russia will continue its aggression until Ukraine meets their demands. He added his impression was that Moscow is not currently in a position to establish a ceasefire and that they did not discuss military supplies to Ukraine.

Ukraine cannot stop the war if the country that started the aggression has no desire to do so, Kuleba said, and that it was not easy to listen to Lavrov during the meeting.

Lavrov has a different impression of what foreign ministers do in a crisis, he added.

Kuleba said the biggest problem facing his country is the situation in the besieged port city of Mariupol, in southeastern Ukraine, which has come under intense shelling and destruction from Russian forces. 

Living in Mariupol is “awful” at the moment, the city’s Deputy Mayor Sergei Orlov told BBC Radio 4’s Today program on Thursday morning, Politico reported.

He said Mariupol residents couldn’t escape, as Russia was shelling in their direction “to push them to return and go back.”

There is no opportunity for any civil people to leave Mariupol at the moment,

Orlov added.

He said about 47 people were buried in a mass grave in Mariupol on Wednesday.

Three people, including a child, were killed in the Russian shelling of a children's hospital in Mariupol on Wednesday, local authorities said on Thursday.

“Three died, including one child — a girl,” the municipality said on Telegram.

Mariupol Deputy Mayor Sergei Orlov told the BBC earlier on Thursday that 17 people were injured in the shelling.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in an address late Wednesday night:

What kind of country is this — the Russian Federation, which is afraid of hospitals and maternity hospitals and destroys them? Did someone in the maternity hospital abuse Russian-speakers?

Zelensky added that the attack was the “final proof … that the genocide of Ukrainians is taking place.”

Kuleba told the news conference that there is no progress on ceasefire and that Ukraine has two tasks - organising a humanitarian corridor from Mariupol and reaching a 24-hour truce. 

He says he hopes Russia will allow for a humanitarian corridor out of the city.

A humanitarian convoy trying to reach Mariupol has been forced to turn around due to fighting, Reuters reports the Ukrainian deputy prime minister has said.

Kuleba said the list of Lavrov's demands "is a surrender" and that he hopes his Russian counterpart will follow up their conversation with the Russian government and army - and hear the plea of Ukrainian civilians.

Lavrov delivers news conference following Ukraine talks

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said he discussed humanitarian issues, what troops are doing to protect civilians, evacuation corridors and food supply and price stability in Europe with his Ukrainian counterpart, according to Sky News.

But it seems there are no positive, or at least substantive, updates from his end either. It was not long into the news conference that Lavrov accused Ukrainian "nationalists" of using civilians as human shields.

Responding to a question from the BBC as to whether a ceasefire would be possible, Lavrov said the "special military operation" will carry on, and that Vladimir Putin says his strategy is going to plan.

Lavrov also said that by supplying defensive aid to Ukraine, the West is "behaving dangerously".

We did not attack Ukraine,

he explained, claiming that Russia was being threatened and needed to defend the regions of Donetsk and Luhansk, which Russia sees as independent of Ukraine.

On a question about the bombing of a hospital in Mariupol from CNBC, Lavrov said that the media had not given a balanced story about what happened yesterday, and that the building was empty of patients and under the control of Ukrainian "radicals".

The images shown all over Western madia would appear to contradict this view.

Lavrov has also said that Vladimir Putin would not refuse a meeting with Volodymyr Zelensky to discuss “specific” issues, Reuters reported.

Russia never wants to depend on Western states or companies again, Lavrov said, adding that the West was using Ukraine to undermine Russia.

Lavrov told a news conference after talks with his Ukrainian counterpart in Turkey that Russia had never used its oil and gas as weapons and that it would always have markets for its energy exports.

Kremlin claims US and Ukraine conduct chemical and biological weapons activities

Meanwhile, Putin claims the United States and Ukraine are conducting chemical and biological weapons activities in Ukraine.  

[...] Russia is inventing false pretexts in an attempt to justify its own horrific actions in Ukraine,

the US Department of State said in a statement.

"Russia has a track record of accusing the West of the very crimes that Russia itself is perpetrating. These tactics are an obvious ploy by Russia to try to justify further premeditated, unprovoked, and unjustified attacks on Ukraine. We fully expect Russia to continue to double down on these sorts of claims with further unfounded allegations," it added.

White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki tweeted:

"We took note of Russia’s false claims about alleged U.S. biological weapons labs and chemical weapons development in Ukraine. We’ve also seen Chinese officials echo these conspiracy theories.

Now that Russia has made these false claims, and China has seemingly endorsed this propaganda, we should all be on the lookout for Russia to possibly use chemical or biological weapons in Ukraine, or to create a false flag operation using them. It’s a clear pattern,

she warned.

We took note of Russia’s false claims about alleged U.S. biological weapons labs and chemical weapons development in Ukraine. We’ve also seen Chinese officials echo these conspiracy theories.

— Jen (Psaki) March 9, 2022

Cover photo: Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia