Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky announced Sunday that the country will meet Russian officials for peace talks.
In his statement, Zelensky said, “We agreed that the Ukrainian delegation would meet with the Russian delegation without preconditions on the Ukrainian-Belarusian border, near the Pripyat River”.
A top Ukrainian official confirmed that the talks will take place Monday.
Shortly after the announcement, Zelensky seemed to question whether the meeting would be successful.
“I do not really believe in the outcome of this meeting, but let them try,” he said in his latest video address.
“So that later not a single citizen of Ukraine has any doubt that I, as president, tried to stop the war, when there was even a small, but still a chance,” he added.
Before the announcement of the talks, Zelensky had spoken with Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko, one of the Kremlin’s main allies.
Zelensky said that Lukashenko promised “all planes, helicopters and missiles stationed on Belarusian territory remain on the ground during the Ukrainian delegation’s travel, talks and return”.
According to Belarusian state television, the talks will occur at an Aleksandrovka and Vilcha border checkpoint. Vladimir Putin’s delegation is already in Belarus.
Ukraine’s ambassador to the US, Oksana Markarova, reported that Zelensky will not be at the meetings in person. “President Zelensky made a decision to defend the country,” she said. “So he’s in Kyiv, with the armed forces, with people with Ukraine, defending the country”.
“There is an ongoing, full-fledged war with war crimes conducted by Russians in Ukraine on a daily basis. So how genuine is this proposal? We don’t know,” Markarova said to CNN. “We are ready for peace talks, but we are not ready to surrender”.