Russia and Ukraine signal openness to talks but 'pause' follows

KYIV • The Russian and Ukrainian governments signalled an openness to negotiations on Friday, even as the authorities in Kyiv urged citizens to help defend the capital from advancing Russian forces.

Ukraine and Russia are discussing a place and time for talks, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky's spokesman Sergii Nykyforov said on social media on Friday.

The Kremlin had said earlier on Friday it had offered to meet Ukrainian officials in the Belarusian capital Minsk, but that Ukraine had instead proposed the Polish capital of Warsaw as a venue, resulting in a "pause" in contacts.

"Ukraine was and remains ready to talk about a ceasefire and peace," Mr Nykyforov said. But there has been no further update after his comments on Friday.

Any meeting would likely struggle to find common ground on the question of "neutrality" for Ukraine, which has sought to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation and draw closer to Europe.

Later on Friday, Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Peter Szijjarto offered Budapest as a venue for the negotiations.

But the US State Department said that Russia's offer of talks was a bid to conduct diplomacy "at the barrel of a gun", and that President Vladimir Putin's military must stop bombing Ukraine if it was serious about negotiations.

REUTERS, XINHUA, BLOOMBERG