Russian, Ukrainian foreign ministers begin talks
The foreign ministers of Russia and Ukraine, Sergey Lavrov and Dmytro Kuleba, have begun talks in Turkey, marking the first time the two countries' top diplomats have met since Russia's invasion of Ukraine began.
Officials from Kyiv and Moscow have previously held talks in Belarus, but there are hopes that a meeting between Lavrov and Kuleba might yield more concrete progress.
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The meeting has started," Russian foreign ministry spokesman Maria Zakharova said on her Telegram channel at around 08:20 GMT on March 10. The meeting is being brokered by Turkish foreign minister Mevlut Cavusoglu.
The Kremlin on March 7 said that Russia would halt its operations in Ukraine if Kyiv ceased fighting, amended its constitution to declare its neutrality, and recognised Russia's annexation of Crimea and the independence of the breakaway Donetsk and Lugansk states. In an interview with ABC News on March 8, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy avoided declaring a clear stance on these issues. But he hinted at a willingness to compromise.
On Ukraine's potential NATO membership, the Ukrainian leader said he had "cooled down regarding this question a long time ago, after we understood that ... NATO is not prepared to accept Ukraine. The alliance is afraid of controversial things and confrontation with Russia."
"I think that items regarding temporarily occupied territories and pseudo-republics not recognised by anyone but Russia, we can discuss and find a compromise on how these territories will live on," he continued. "What's important to me is how the people in those territories who want to be part of Ukraine are going to live."
Zelenskyy called for a "collective security agreement" that would involve Russia," but said he "cannot recognise that Crimea is the territory of Russia" and that "it will be difficult for Russia to recognise that this is the territory of Ukraine."