The foreign ministers of Russia and Ukraine have arrived in Turkey for face-to-face talks set for Thursday morning.
According to officials, it was the first high-level contact between the two sides since Moscow invaded its ex-Soviet neighbour.
Officials from Kyiv and Moscow have held several rounds of discussions in Belarus, but the meeting in the southern city of Antalya is the first time Russia has sent a minister for talks on the crisis.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba had landed in Antalya for talks “on Russia ceasing its hostilities and ending its war against Ukraine,” foreign ministry spokesperson Oleg Nikolenko tweeted Wednesday evening.
His Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov has also arrived for the talks, a Turkish official told AFP.
Dialogue between Kyiv and Moscow has so far yielded several local ceasefires and humanitarian corridors to evacuate residents, but Russia has been accused of breaching those agreements.
Kuleba confirmed in a Facebook video that he would travel to Turkey for the talks but said his expectations were “limited”, as Russia continues its brutal bombing campaign and siege of major cities.
He said the success of the talks would depend on “what instructions and directives Lavrov is under” from the Kremlin.
“I am not pinning any great hopes on them, but we will try and get the most out of” the talks with effective preparation, he said.
