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Military operation in Ukraine

Parties present their specified positions at Ukraine-Russia talks — Ukrainian official

The first round of Russian-Ukrainian negotiations was held in Belarus on February 28

KIEV, March 14. /TASS/. The delegations of Ukraine and Russia express their specified positions at the online talks on Monday, Advisor to the Ukrainian Presidential Office Mikhail Podolyak wrote on his Telegram channel.

"The parties actively express their specified positions. Communication is being held yet it’s hard. The reason for the discord is too different political systems," Podolyak blogged.

The first round of Russian-Ukrainian negotiations was held in the Gomel Region of neighboring Belarus on February 28. It lasted five hours. The second round followed in Belovezhskaya Pushcha, Belarus on March 3. The delegates met for a third time in the Brest Region of Belarus on March 7. And on March 10, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba held a meeting on the sidelines of the diplomatic forum in Turkey’s Antalya.

On February 17, tensions escalated along the line of contact in Donbass. The Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics reported the most intense shelling by Ukraine in months. On February 24, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a special military operation in response to a request for help by the heads of the Donbass republics. Moscow has no plans to occupy Ukrainian territories, he stressed.

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