In a major development after four days of fierce fighting, Russia and Ukraine have reportedly agreed to hold talks.
After rejecting Moscow's offer to have dialogue in the capital city of neighbouring Belarus, the Ukrainian government reportedly agreed for talks at the Ukraine-Belarus border, near the Pripyat river.
The decision to have talks near the Chernobyl exclusion zone was reportedly taken after Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy had a phone conversation with his Belarusian counterpart Alexander Lukashenko.
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Earlier, Zelenskyy had said that since Belarus is part of the invasion force, Ukraine was not ready to have talks in Minsk. Instead, a "neutral" city could be chosen, he had said.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has already sent a delegation to Belarus' Gomel for talks. Putin's aide Vladimir Medinsky, present in Minsk, said, "The initiative to hold talks was expressed the day before yesterday by the Ukrainian side. We immediately agreed and offered Minsk as a place for negotiations. Ukraine took a long pause and began to offer other cities, including Warsaw and so on. In the end, we found a compromise and, at the suggestion of the Ukrainian side, we agreed to hold talks in Gomel. This is a Belarusian city, located almost on the border with Ukraine. Moreover, the parties worked out in detail the route of the Ukrainian delegation. It was agreed, we ensured and guaranteed the absolute safety of the Ukrainian delegation."