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Officials from Ukraine and Russia on Monday held peace talks for the fourth time since the invasion, following a bloody weekend of intensified Russian shelling that targeted locations in western Ukraine.
Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said in a tweet that while the two groups will pause until Tuesday, “negotiations continue.” He said previously that they planned to have a “hard discussion” on Monday about a cease-fire and security guarantees. Even amid a violent weekend of airstrikes, the adviser said on Sunday that the Russian side “carefully listens” to Ukraine’s proposals.
One strike hit a Ukrainian military base just miles from the Ukraine-Poland border on Sunday – dangerously close to NATO territory, according to RadioFreeEurope. A local official claimed that more than 35 people were killed and triple that number were wounded in the attack. A senior U.S. defense official told reporters on background Monday that the number of deaths and people wounded couldn’t be verified but said the attack consisted of cruise missiles launched from long-range bombers in Russian airspace. A map shared by the U.K. Defense Ministry shows the location of several Russian airstrikes in western parts of Ukraine.
While Russia is expanding its attacks west, the U.K. said in a Sunday intelligence update that the Russian military remains focused eastern cities such as Kharkiv and the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv, “attempting to envelop Ukrainian forces” in that part of the country. Russia struck a residential building in Kyiv on Monday, according to local reports. And Russian shelling has reportedly damaged an underground gas storage facility near Chernihiv, according to Reuters. But the U.S. defense official said Monday that “almost all of Russia’s advances remain stalled.”
Russia does not appear interested in pausing what officials – including President Vladimir Putin – repeatedly refer to as its “special military operation” in Ukraine while negotiations take place. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Monday that the invasion “is proceeding in accordance with the original plan and will be completed on time and in full,” according to a translation by Russian state-run news agency Tass. Putin on Saturday told German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and French President Emmanuel Macron to use their influence to stop “criminal acts” being committed by Ukrainians, according to a Kremlin readout of the leaders’ meeting – even as global officials accuse Russia itself of war crimes.
Meanwhile, Ukrainians are still fleeing their country in massive numbers. The U.N. Refugee Agency estimated on Monday that more than 2.8 million people have left to neighboring countries since Feb. 24, including more than 1.7 million to Poland alone.