Russia-Ukraine War: Ukrainian delegation heads to Belarus for talks after Moscow's threat

Ukraine confirmed the meeting with Russia in Gomel, Belarus on Sunday. The confirmation came after Russia gave a deadline to Ukraine. By the said deadline fixed for 3 PM Ukrainian time - 6:30 PM IST- on February 27, Ukraine had to decide whether it was ready to meet for talks with Russia at Belarus.

Earlier in the day, Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky accepted his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin's offer to hold talks but not in neighbouring Belarus, an ally of Moscow which used it as a staging ground for its multipronged invasion. Speaking in Russian in a video message, he said, “Any other city in a country from whose territory missiles do not fly would suit us,” and listed the cities of Warsaw, Bratislava, Istanbul, Budapest or Baku as alternative venues.

Thereafter,  the Head of the Russian delegation in Belarus had warned Ukraine, saying "We stand for peace. If they refuse talks, the responsibility will lie entirely with the Ukrainian side."

Russia-Ukraine war

For weeks, Moscow massed over 150,000 troops on Ukraine's borders in a bid to pressurise Western nations to not allow Ukraine to join NATO. Ultimately, on February 24, Kremlin, on the pretext of 'special military operation' and with an aim to 'demilitarise', ordered its armed forces to carry out a full-fledged invasion of Ukraine. Citing his reason as Kyiv's failure to establish 'talks' with Moscow, Putin directed the Russian Army to launch heavy missile strikes and explosions across the country.

Ukraine has refused to surrender and continues to hold up resistance.  As per the data of the estimated losses of the Russian army for three days put forth by Ukraine Defence Forces- 4300 military personnel, 27 aircraft, 26 helicopters,146 tanks, 706 armoured fighting vehicles,49 guns, one Buk air defence system, four "Grads" and two ships/boats have been lost. 

UNSC meeting on Sunday 

Meanwhile, the UN Security Council will convene Sunday afternoon at the request of the United States and Albania to vote on a resolution calling for a special session of the General Assembly over the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Only nine of the 15 Security Council member states would need to vote in favour of the resolution for it to be adopted at the meeting. Under a rarely used procedure, none of the five permanent members -- Russia is one of them -- would be allowed to veto the convening of the special session Monday, which is scheduled for 3:00 pm -(1:30 am as per IST).