Russia, Ukraine Foreign Ministers meet in Turkey, talks yield no progress as war enters third week

Russia's war in Ukraine entered the third week on Thursday with none of its stated objectives reached, despite thousands of people killed, more than two million made refugees, and thousands cowering in besieged cities under relentless bombardment.

The foreign ministers of Russia and Ukraine met on Thursday in Turkey, the highest-level contact between the two countries since the war began on February 24, but in simultaneous duelling news conferences made clear they had made no progress.

Ukraine's Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said he had secured no promise from Russia's Sergei Lavrov to halt firing so aid could reach civilians, including Kyiv's main humanitarian priority - evacuating hundreds of thousands of people trapped in the besieged port of Mariupol.

March 10, 2022

Lavrov showed no sign of making any concessions, repeating Russian demands that Ukraine be disarmed and accept neutral status. He said Kyiv appeared to want meetings for the sake of meetings and blamed the West for intensifying the conflict by arming its neighbour.

The city council of Mariupol said the port had come under fresh airstrikes on Thursday morning and Ukraine said Russia committed "genocide" by bombing a maternity hospital there on Wednesday. Lavrov said the building was no longer used as a hospital and had been occupied by Ukrainian forces.

"What kind of country is this, the Russian Federation, which is afraid of hospitals, is afraid of maternity hospitals, and destroys them?" President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a televised address late on Wednesday, after posting footage of the wreckage, showing massive damage to the building.

Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said Ukraine would try to open seven humanitarian corridors on Thursday, including another attempt to reach Mariupol. Daily missions to rescue civilians there have failed since Saturday.