Moscow/Kyiv | Jagran News Desk: The foreign ministers of Russia and Ukraine Sergey Lavrov and Dmitry Kuleba respectively are expected to meet on the sidelines of a multilateral conference in Antalya, Turkey on Thursday, March 10, according to Russia-based Sputnik radio, which quoted Russia's foreign ministry spokesperson as saying.
The meeting will be trilateral with the Turkish Foreign Minister participating in the peace talks. Russia and Ukraine are at war after a Russian invasion of its neighbour two weeks ago, which Moscow describes as 'special operations'. The news of the foreign ministers' meeting was received cautiously, given the current state of hostilities.
However, with the Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy virtually stating his country will not join the western military alliance North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) - a major issue with the Kremlin - there is a glimmer of hope that there is light at the end of the tunnel.
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Zelenskyy, as quoted by US-based ABC News said, "I have cooled down regarding this question a long time ago after we understood that NATO is not prepared to accept (Ukraine's membership)", adding, "the alliance (NATO) is afraid of controversial things, and confrontation with Russia."
Meanwhile, Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said that Russia has never threatened NATO and does not threaten the Western military alliance now. She added that her country still must react to NATO's "confrontational course", adding that NATO's build-up of military forces on its eastern flank was "provocative in its nature".
The meeting between the foreign ministers of Russia and Ukraine was proposed by Turkey's Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, who had proposed holding it in a trilateral format. It has been reported that the meeting will take place on Thursday, while the diplomatic forum is scheduled to take place on Friday. Peace talks between Russia and Ukraine have so far proven challenging, with no concrete agreement reached as yet.
(With Agencies Inputs)