Mar 7, 2022: According to a report by Al Jazeera, Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and his Ukrainian counterpart Dmytro Kuleba have agreed to meet on Thursday, Turkey’s top diplomat Mevlut Cavusoglu said.

The meeting will be the first of its kind between the representatives of the two warring sides since the Russian invasion on Fenruary 24.

“Hopefully this step will lead to peace and stability,” Cavusoglu wrote on Twitter on Monday, announcing that the talks would take place on the sidelines of an international diplomatic forum in Antalya, southern Turkey.

NATO member Turkey, which shares maritime borders with Russia and Ukraine in the Black Sea, has been offering mediation between the parties. Ankara has good relations with both Moscow and Kyiv and has declared the Russian invasion unacceptable, although it opposes sanctions against Moscow. و

Cavusoglu said that in a call with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Sunday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan reiterated Turkey’s offer to host the meeting, which Lavrov later accepted.

“We especially hope that this meeting is a turning point and … an important step towards peace and stability,” he said, according to the news agency Reuters, adding both ministers had asked for him to join the meeting.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova confirmed the talks over the telegram. Kuleba said on Saturday that he was ready to talk to Lavrov, but only if the talks were “meaningful.”

The announcement came as delegations from Ukraine and Russia launched a third round of talks after two previous attempts failed. On Sunday, a second attempt to build a humanitarian corridor to allow civilians to flee violently in the port city of Mariupol failed, with both Ukraine and Russia accusing each other of violating a prearranged ceasefire.

Moscow on Monday proposed new humanitarian corridors, offering routes that would take citizens to Russia or Belarus, which was used by Russian President Vladimir Putin as a launch pad for his ground invasion into Ukraine’s northern border. The move was swiftly rebuked by Ukraine as “immoral”.

At least 200,000 needy people are trapped in the coastal city of Mariupol, which has been under constant bombardment by Russian forces for days. People there are living in what aid group Doctor Without Borders, known by its French initials MSF, described as a “catastrophic” situation – with no food, heat or electricity.

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