Fighting Intensity Has Not Abated, Russia-Ukraine Peace Talks Will Resume Online Today

Impact of Russian attack. (Wikimedia Commons/mvs.gov.ua/Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine)

JAKARTA - It is said that peace talks between Russia and Ukraine will resume online today, at a time when the intensity of fighting between the two countries' troops has not shown any signs of abating.

Air raid sirens blared once again in the capital Kyiv, with authorities saying they were stockpiling essential foodstuffs for two weeks for the 2 million people who had not fled Russian forces trying to besiege the city.

On March 14, Ukraine reported new airstrikes on airports in the west and heavy shelling in Chernihiv northeast of the capital.

Interior Ministry official Vadym Denyenko said Ukrainian troops were carrying out a counterattack in the eastern Kharkiv region and around the southern city of Mykolayiv. Reuters was unable to verify the statement.

In eastern Ukraine, Russian troops are trying to surround Ukrainian troops as they advance from the port of Mariupol in the south and the second city of Kharkiv in the north, the British Ministry of Defense said.

The city council in Mariupol said in a statement that 2,187 residents had died since the start of the invasion. Reuters was unable to verify the toll.

Kharkiv, Ukraine's second-largest city, has suffered some of the heaviest bombings. Video from a resident, Teimur Aliev, shows buildings being bombed along the street, burning cars littered with shrapnel holes and scattered debris.

"We will stitch up the wounds and pain in our country and our city. We are ready to build it and we are ready to renew it when the war ends. We are not going anywhere," said Aliev, 23, a musician.

Meanwhile, in Chernihiv, about 150 km (100 miles) northeast of Kyiv, firefighters rescued residents from a burning building after heavy shooting, video from Ukraine's emergency services and verified by Reuters, showed.

The impact of the Russian attack. (Wikimedia Commons/dsns.gov.ua/State Emergency Service of Ukraine)

Despite the violence, both sides gave the most optimistic assessments of the prospects for progress at the bilateral talks, which have been held periodically since the start of the invasion.

"Russia has started talking constructively," Ukrainian negotiator and presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak said in a video posted online.

"I think we will achieve some results literally in a matter of days."

While a Russian delegate to talk to Ukraine, Leonid Slutsky, was quoted by the RIA news agency as saying they had made significant progress, it is possible the delegates could reach a draft agreement soon.

Separately, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russia-Ukraine talks would resume on Monday, March 14 in a virtual format.

"Yes," he said when asked if the talks tomorrow (today) would be held online.

Peskov said on Saturday the Russian delegation to virtual talks with Ukraine would as usual be led by presidential aide Vladimir Medinsky.

For information, the first round of Russian-Ukrainian talks was held in the Gomel region of Belarus on February 28. The talks lasted five hours. The second round of talks was held on March 3 in Belovezhskaya Pushcha, in Belarus. The talks resulted in an agreement on a humanitarian corridor to evacuate civilians.

Delegates meet for the third round of talks on March 7, in the Brest region, also in Belarus. On March 10, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov met his Ukrainian counterpart, Dmitry Kuleba on the sidelines of a diplomatic forum in Antalya, Turkey.