Russia and Ukraine to hold high-profile talks as war rages on

Members of delegations from Ukraine and Russia, including Russian presidential aide Vladimir Medinsky (2L), Ukrainian presidential aide Mykhailo Podolyak (2R), Volodymyr Zelensky's "Servant of the People" lawmaker Davyd Arakhamia (3R), hold talks in Belarus' Gomel region on February 28, 2022, following the Russian invasion of Ukraine. (Photo by Sergei KHOLODILIN / BELTA / AFP) / Belarus OUT

The foreign ministers of Russia and Ukraine are to hold talks in Turkey, as Moscow’s all-out invasion of its neighbour enters its third week.

Ukraine’s Dmytro Kuleba said ahead of the face-to-face meeting with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov that his expectations were “limited”.

It comes after Ukraine accused Russia of bombing a children’s hospital – an attack Kyiv says is a “war crime”.

Ukraine says 17 people were hurt in the attack in Mariupol on Wednesday.

Footage has since emerged showing a building – which also housed a maternity ward – reduced to a shell, with a huge crater nearby.

The bombing has been widely condemned, with the UN Secretary General António Guterres describing the attack as “horrific”, and the US accusing Russia of a “barbaric use of military force to go after innocent civilians”.

But Russia’s deputy ambassador to the UN, Dmitry Polyanskiy, said the bombed hospital had been “turned into a military object by [Ukrainian] radicals”.

Mariupol – where about 400,000 people live – has been surrounded by Russian forces for several days, and repeated attempts at a ceasefire to allow civilians to leave have broken down.

“The whole city remains without electricity, water, food, whatever and people are dying because of dehydration,” Olena Stokoz of Ukraine’s Red Cross told the BBC on Wednesday.

Russian warplanes also hit residential areas in overnight raids in Ukraine’s north-eastern Sumy region, local officials said.

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