No progress on Ukraine ceasefire in Lavrov-Kuleba meeting

The meeting, in the southern Turkish resort of Antalya was the highest-level contact between the two sides since Russia invaded Ukraine

Talks between Russia and Ukraine's foreign ministers on Thursday made no apparent progress towards a ceasefire in the two-week-old conflict or on a humanitarian corridor from the southern Ukrainian port of Mariupol.

Qazet.az informs that Ukraine's Dmytro Kuleba said after the talks that he had sought a 24-hour ceasefire across the whole combat zone as well as the opening of a Mariupol corridor, but that his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov did not commit to either.

Lavrov said he reminded Kuleba that Moscow had presented proposals to Kyiv, and that Russia wanted to see what he called a friendly, demilitarised Ukraine.

The meeting, in the southern Turkish resort of Antalya was the highest-level contact between the two sides since Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24. It lasted just under an hour and a half.

Both Kuleba and Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, who hosted the talks, said it was not an easy meeting.