A Russian delegation has arrived in Belarus to hold negotiations with the Ukrainian side, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov announced in Moscow on Sunday, MTI reported on Sunday
"In accordance with the agreement reached, a Russian delegation consisting of representatives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Defense and other agencies, including the presidential administration, arrived in Belarus to hold talks with the Ukrainians," he said.
"We are ready to start these negotiations in Gomel," Peskov added.
Major General Igor Konasenkov, the spokesman of the Russian Ministry of Defense, announced that the 302nd Missile Defense Regiment of the Ukrainian Armed Forces voluntarily laid down its arms and surrendered in Kharkiv on Saturday. According to Konasenkov, the 471 detained Ukrainian soldiers will be released home after the relevant documentation is completed. The spokesman claimed that Ukrainian soldiers were refusing to fight "en masse" elsewhere.
According to the general, since the beginning of the offensive operation, the "local army groups" have advanced 52 kilometers in the Luhansk "People's Republic" and 12 kilometers in Donetsk. He accused the Ukrainian Azov "nationalist" battalion of firing Grad-type rocket launchers at residential areas of the village of Szartana on the outskirts of Mariupol and Mariupol school No. 8 on Thursday afternoon. As he said, residential buildings were destroyed and there were also civilian victims.
Konasenkov announced that in the last 24 hours, the Russian armed forces have completely blockaded Kherson and the city of Bergiansk, the city of Henitsevsk and the Chornobayivka airport near Kherson.
By the morning of the fourth day of the Russian invasion, according to the general, 975 installations of the Ukrainian military infrastructure had been destroyed, including 23 command and communication hubs, 3 radar stations, 31 anti-aircraft missile systems and 48 radar stations.
Eight combat aircraft and seven helicopters, 11 unmanned aerial vehicles and two Tocska-U tactical missiles were shot down. They destroyed 223 tanks and other armored fighting vehicles, 28 aircraft (on the ground), 39 multiple rocket launcher systems, 86 artillery guns and mortars, and 143 special military vehicles, according to the Russian war report.
Fresh news:
Minsk: The Ukrainian delegation left for Belarus, MTI announced.
As you can read, a Ukrainian delegation went to Gomel to negotiate with representatives of Russia, Yury Voskreshensky, head of the Round Table of the Belarusian Democratic Forces, announced on Sunday, according to the Russian news agency TASSSZ.
Belarusian presidential spokeswoman Natalya Eyszmont confirmed to the BelTA news agency that Lukashenko spoke to Zelenskyi by phone and assured him, among other things, that no Belarusian soldiers are fighting in Ukraine. According to Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, the Belarusian president called Putin and asked him not to recall the Russian negotiating delegation that had arrived in his country.
Vladimir Megynskyi, the head of the Russian delegation, said that Ukraine has confirmed its intention to negotiate and that the parties will meet in Gomel.
He promised that Russia would guarantee the safety of the Ukrainian delegation's route . According to Megynskyi, the Russian delegation, which left Minsk for Gomel, is ready for negotiations at any time of the day, as he said: in order to save the lives of Ukrainian soldiers and civilians.
Before agreeing to the Gomel talks, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy suggested Warsaw, Bratislava, Budapest, Istanbul or Baku as alternative locations on Sunday morning. He was reluctant about Belarus, because, as he said, they are firing missiles at Ukraine from there.
Kiev later announced that the meeting would take place on the Ukrainian-Belarusian border, at the Pripyat River. According to the Ukrainian presidential office, Lukashenko promised that all aircraft, helicopters and missiles deployed in Belarus would remain on the ground during the negotiations.
Source and image: MTI
