The foreign ministers of Russia and Ukraine held their first face-to-face cease-fire talks Thursday in Turkey but said no progress was made.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba and his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov came out of their meeting in the resort city of Antalya empty-handed, with Kuleba saying in a press conference Kyiv "will not surrender" to Moscow.
Kuleba added he called for a 24-hour truce to allow civilians to evacuate during the meeting but to no avail. Still, Kuleba expressed willingness to hold more talks with Lavrov.
Meanwhile, Lavrov said in a separate press conference that cease-fire negotiations will continue to be held by high-ranking officials from both sides in Belarus, whose government has been helping Moscow's military action.
Lavrov also said the two ministers discussed the possibility of a summit between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy but aired his view that the time is not ripe for such a meeting since "specific outcomes" will be needed for the leaders' talks.
The talks at the mediation of the Turkish government came as Russia's aggression continued to intensify and after previous cease-fire talks failed to halt the conflict.
During the past cease-fire negotiations, Ukraine demanded the withdrawal of Russian troops from all Ukrainian territory, while Russia called for its sovereignty over Crimea, which it annexed from Ukraine in 2014, to be recognized, as well as the "demilitarization" and "neutralization" of the former Soviet neighbor.
The deputy mayor of hard-hit Mariupol, Sergei Orlov, said Wednesday that 1,170 civilians had died in the 10 days since Russian forces began to lay siege to the southern port city.
Shelling by Russian forces severely damaged a maternity hospital in Mariupol, injuring pregnant patients and trapping civilians in the rubble.
Russian military activity also cut power to the Chernobyl nuclear complex in northern Ukraine on Wednesday. But the International Atomic Energy Agency said the situation was not critical and the volume of cooling water in the site's spent fuel storage facility was sufficient to cool the fuel without electricity.
Russia's energy ministry said Thursday that the power supply at Chernobyl has been restored with electricity from neighboring Belarus, according to the Interfax news agency.
Turkey, which borders Ukraine and Russia in the Black Sea, has been offering to mediate between the two countries.
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