A third round of negotiations with Russia this weekend

Ukraine expects a third round of negotiations with Russia this weekend, one of the Ukrainian negotiators, Mykhaïlo Podoliak, adviser to the head of the presidential administration, said on Friday. “The third stage can take place tomorrow or the day after tomorrow, we are in constant contact,” he said at a press conference in Lviv, western Ukraine, adding that the Ukrainians do not were waiting for the agreement of the Russians to return to the negotiating table.

Better than the first two?

According to the German chancellery, Olaf Scholz spoke with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin who assured him that negotiations would resume this weekend. The two previous rounds of talks, on the Ukrainian-Belarusian border and then on the Polish-Belarusian border, did not lead to a cessation of fighting, but the parties agreed to set up “humanitarian corridors” for the evacuation civilians.