The office of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that negotiations between Kyiv and Moscow will be held today on the Belarus-Ukraine border, adding that the two sides will meet without preconditions, while the United Nations General Assembly convenes today to consider the Russian war on Ukraine.

Zelensky added that although he did not really believe that this meeting would come out, he agreed to this step “so that later no citizen of Ukraine would have any doubt” that as president, he tried to stop the war, as he put it.

The President called on Ukrainians to act rationally to achieve the goal of ensuring the integrity and territorial integrity of their country.

The Ukrainian presidency announced that the Ukrainian delegation arrived this morning in Belarus to conduct negotiations with Russia, and stressed that the main objective of these talks with Russia is an immediate ceasefire and the withdrawal of Russian forces.


Doubts about Putin's intentions

In the context, a British Cabinet spokesman said that Zelensky told British Prime Minister Boris Johnson by phone on Sunday that the next 24 hours would be critical for Ukraine.

In a statement, the spokesman added that Johnson said the UK and its allies would do everything in their power to ensure defense aid reaches Ukraine.

In turn, Johnson said on Sunday that he had doubts about the sincerity of Russian President Vladimir Putin's intentions with regard to entering negotiations with Ukraine, but added that he agreed that every means should be used to end the war.

"If he (Putin) wants to stop, if he wants to pull out, if he wants to negotiate, that's good news. But I have my doubts... We haven't seen anything yet in his behavior that makes me believe he might be honest," Johnson told reporters.

For his part, the Ukrainian president's adviser said that the Russian army had not made any progress in the south of the country, and that the pace of its movements had become slow thanks to the resistance of the Ukrainians.

He explained in his speech that the Russians had lost the initiative, and considered the arrival of a Russian delegation to Belarus and its invitation to hold talks, as evidence of the failure of the plan prepared by Moscow.

In turn, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said that Kyiv had agreed to send a delegation to the Belarusian border to hear what Moscow wanted to say.

He stressed that the losses suffered by the Russian forces prompted Moscow to negotiate without preconditions, which he considered a victory for Kiev.

Kuleba considered Putin's decision to put the nuclear deterrent forces on high alert, as an attempt to put pressure on the Ukrainian delegation.

He also appealed to the countries of the world to provide his country with more weapons to defend itself, and called on those wishing to join the fight alongside Ukraine to communicate with its embassies in the world, describing the bombing of Kyiv as the most violent since World War II.

For his part, Vladimir Medinsky, aide to the Russian president, said that Moscow is ready to negotiate with Kyiv at any time with the aim of reaching peace.


UN meeting and American contacts

On the other hand, the UN Security Council adopted a resolution, at the request of Western countries, calling for an emergency session of the United Nations General Assembly on Monday on the Russian attack on Ukraine.

Eleven countries supported the resolution proposed by the United States and Albania, while Russia voted against it, and China, India and the UAE abstained.

The United Nations system does not allow a veto in such a case.

"Given that the lack of consensus among its permanent members" on Friday "prevented it from exercising its primary responsibility in maintaining international peace and security," the Security Council decided to "call an emergency session of the General Assembly," the text of the resolution stated.

In Washington, the White House announced that US President Joe Biden will hold phone calls with Washington's allies and partners this morning to coordinate a joint response to Russia's war on Ukraine.

US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said in a tweet on Twitter that the comprehensive financial sanctions imposed by Japan on Russia reflect the firmness and unity of the G7 member states in the face of what he described as Russian aggression against Ukraine.

On Sunday, the White House called on China to condemn Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

"This is not the time to stand on the sidelines. This is the time to speak up and condemn the actions of President Putin, Russia and the invasion of a sovereign country," White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki said in an interview with MSNBC.


G7 sanctions

On Sunday evening, the Group of Seven countries announced their readiness to impose new sanctions on Russia, after those announced during the week, "in case it does not end its war on Ukraine."

During a meeting of the foreign ministers of the United States, Germany, France, Japan, Canada, Italy and the United Kingdom, the Group of Seven major industrialized nations urged Moscow "to put an immediate end to attacks on Ukraine, its civilian population and civilian infrastructure, and to withdraw its forces without delay" from the country, according to a statement published by the German presidency of the Group of Seven. .

According to the same statement, the countries warned that they would not recognize any change in the "status" of Ukraine that would be imposed by force, in other words, any region that might be declared annexed.

In a subsequent statement, US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said the group had never been more united "in the defense and preservation of the freedom and sovereignty of Ukraine and all nations".


popular demonstrations

On the popular level, tens of thousands demonstrated across Europe on Sunday to protest against the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

More than 100,000 protesters gathered in central Berlin carrying banners reading "Stop the war", "Putin's last wars" and "We stand with Ukraine", as well as the flag of Ukraine and the flag of the European Union.

Railways and subways were disrupted in some areas of the German capital, as thousands flocked to the Brandenburg Gate, near the Russian embassy.

Some 80,000 protesters gathered in Prague's Central Square, where the Czech prime minister told the crowd that the country still remembered its horror of Russian tanks rolling into the capital more than five decades ago.

In the center of the Spanish capital, Madrid, thousands of protesters waved Ukrainian flags and raised banners denouncing the Russian attack on Ukraine.

In Denmark, about 400 demonstrators gathered in front of the Ukrainian embassy in central Copenhagen, and many of them lit candles and laid bouquets of flowers to show their support for the Ukrainian people.

Rome, Lisbon and London witnessed similar protests.

In Russia itself, protesters took to the streets in about 46 cities to express their opposition to the war, and the police arrested more than 1,700 of them.