Ukraine accepts dialogue with Russia on the border between its country and Belarus

Ukraine’s presidency said on Sunday that it had agreed to hold talks with Russia and that they would be held on the border with Belarus, near the Chernobyl exclusion zone, a decision made after mediation by Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko.

The Ukrainian delegation will meet with the Russian (delegation) without setting preconditions on the Ukrainian-Belarusian border, in the Pripyat River region,” the presidency said in a statement.

Minutes earlier, Russian President  Vladimir Putin accused Ukraine of “not taking advantage of the opportunity” of the talks it wants to hold in Belarus, the country from where Russia launched part of its invasion of Ukraine.

The Russian delegation is in the Belarusian city of Gomel and is ready to negotiate with representatives from Kiev; they, showing inconsistency, have so far not seized this opportunity,” Putin said during a telephone conversation with the Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, according to a Kremlin statement.

To which Ukrainian President Volodimir Zelensky said this Sunday that his country is willing to talk with Russia, but rejected that the talks be in Belarus.

And any other city in a country from which missiles are not launched at us is fine for us,” the Ukrainian president said, accusing Belarus of serving as a platform for Moscow to invade Ukraine.

Ukrainian President Volodimir Zelensky said on Sunday he had spoken with his Belarusian counterpart Alexander Lukashenko, an ally of Moscow and whose territory is used by Russia for the invasion against Kiev.