MOSCOW
\nRussia said on Sunday that, after some back-and-forth, Ukraine agreed to dispatch a team to Belarus for talks to end the Russian military campaign in the country.
\nKiev confirmed the planned talks in Gomel Region, which is close to the borders of both Russia and Ukraine, Russian chief negotiator Vladimir Medinsky told reporters.
\nMedinsky, an aide to President Vladimir Putin and former culture minister, added that the parties are now deciding on the logistics and the exact location of the summit, with \u201cmaximum security\u201d for the Ukrainians. \u201cWe guarantee that the travel route will be 100% safe. We will be waiting for the Ukrainian delegation,\u201d the Russian chief negotiator said.
\nThe Russian team arrived in Gomel on Sunday, where it said talks were planned with the Ukrainians. Kiev later said it wanted to negotiate on \u201cneutral ground,\u201d arguing that Russian troops were using Belarusian territory to stage attacks on Ukraine. Minsk, however, denied that its forces were participating in the Russian operation.
\nThe Russians initially said their team would stay in Belarus until 3pm local time. However, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky spoke to his Belarusian counterpart, Alexander Lukashenko over the phone, asking to move the deadline, according to Lukashenko\u2019s spokeswoman, Natalia Eismont. She said the Belarusian leader then spoke to Russian President Vladimir Putin, who agreed to move the planned negotiations to a later time.
\nZelensky confirmed the call with Lukashenko on social media, but has not commented on the talks.
\nMoscow attacked its neighbour this week, arguing that it was defending the Donetsk and Lugansk People\u2019s Republics, which broke off from the eastern part of Ukraine shortly after the 2014 coup in Kiev. Ukraine said the move was an act of unprovoked aggression.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
MOSCOW Russia said on Sunday that, after some back-and-forth, Ukraine agreed to dispatch a team to Belarus for talks to end the Russian military campaign in the country. Kiev confirmed the planned talks in Gomel Region, which is close to the borders of both Russia and Ukraine, Russian chief negotiator Vladimir Medinsky told reporters. Medinsky, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":246825,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[306,3154,338,456],"class_list":{"0":"post-246782","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"tag-belarus","9":"tag-moscow","10":"tag-russia","11":"tag-ukraine"},"yoast_head":"\n