The Russian side, which has refused to call the conflict a war, insisted that it would not end until Ukraine was "demilitarized," dousing flickers of hope of a cease fire
Yelena Lavinska, 22, holds a photo of her fiancé, Mikhailo Pristupa, a Ukrainian soldier who was shot and killed in Irpin on March 5, during his wake and funeral at Baikove Cemetery in Kyiv, Ukraine, March 10, 2022. (Lynsey Addario/The New York Times)
The top diplomats of Russia and Ukraine failed to make even a hint of progress Thursday in their first face-to-face meeting since the Russian invasion began, while Russian bombardments spread more carnage in a two-week-old war that Ukraine estimated had already inflicted $100 billion in damage.
The Russian side, which has refused to call the conflict a war, insisted that it would not end until Ukraine was “demilitarized,” dousing flickers of hope that the meeting in Turkey of Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba of Ukraine and his Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov, might lead to even a brief cease-fire. Lavrov later told reporters that was not even discussed.
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