JAKARTA - Ukrainian officials negotiating with their Russian counterparts are tasked with ensuring direct talks between the leaders of countries that can lead to peace, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said late on Sunday.
The next round of talks on the war in Ukraine between the two neighbors is scheduled for Monday morning, via video link. Although officials have given an optimistic assessment of late, the positive outcome of the negotiations is yet to come.
Ukraine has repeatedly called for direct talks between President Zelenskiy and Russian President Vladimir Putin, appointing the Russian leader as the one who makes all final decisions.
"Our delegation has a clear task, doing everything to ensure a meeting of the presidents. A meeting that I'm sure people are waiting for," President Zelenskiy said in his daily video address.
"Obviously this is a difficult story. A difficult road. But this path is necessary. And our goal is for Ukraine to get the results it needs in this struggle, in this negotiating work. It is necessary for peace. And for security," he said.
Meanwhile, Russia has said earlier that the Kremlin would not refuse such a meeting, to discuss 'specific' issues, but there have been no further details.
On Sunday, a barrage of Russian missiles hit a large Ukrainian base near the border with NATO member Poland, killing 35 people and wounding 134, in an escalating war in the country's west as fighting rages elsewhere.
Ukraine has said before that it is willing to negotiate with Russia, but is not giving up on the conflict. Thousands of people have died and more than 2.5 million have been displaced since the war began on February 24.
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Meanwhile, three rounds of talks between the two sides in Belarus, most recently last Monday, have focused mainly on humanitarian issues and led to the limited opening of some corridors for civilians to avoid fighting.
President Putin said on Friday last week there were some "positive changes" in talks but did not elaborate.
A day earlier, talks between the foreign ministers of Russia and Ukraine produced no real progress towards a ceasefire last Thursday, but analysts said the fact they met opened the window to ending the war.
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