Ukraine, Russia disagrees on outcome of the third round of talks in Belarus

The third round of negotiations between Russia and Ukraine on Monday concluded with "small positive" developments, a Ukrainian official said on Monday.

Meanwhile, Russian negotiators said their expectations were "not fulfilled", reported news agency AFP.

The third round of talks with Ukraine was focused on opening humanitarian corridors from Ukrainian cities under fire. After the meeting, Russian delegation head Vladimir Medinsky said, "Our expectations from negotiations were not fulfilled. We hope that next time we will be able to take a more significant step forward."

Kyiv's presidential advisor Mikhailo Podolyak, however, indicated that there was some progress, tweeting, "We have achieved some positive results concerning the logistics of humanitarian corridors,"

Earlier today, Ukraine rejected a Russian plan for a humanitarian corridor to Kyiv, Mariupol, Kharkiv and Sumy to Russia and Belarus. According to maps published by the RIA news agency, the corridor from Kyiv would lead to Belarus, while civilians from Kharkiv would be permitted to go only to Russia. Russia also said it would begin airlifts to take Ukrainians from Kyiv to Russia.

Ukraine called the plan an "unethical stunt". A spokesperson for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russia was trying to "use people's suffering to create a television picture". "They are citizens of Ukraine, they should have the right to evacuate to the territory of Ukraine," news agency Reuters quoted the spokesperson as saying.

The mayor of Sumy, Alexander Lysenko with the commander of the national battalion, has announced that there "will be no green corridors, not a single civilian will go to Russia, and those who try to do this will be shot."

Russia announced a ceasefire in Kyiv, Kharkiv, Mariupol and Sumy from 12.30 pm IST on Monday. But this too fell through after Ukraine rejected the corridor plan.

The United Nations' top court is hearing Ukraine's appeal for an emergency ruling requiring Russia to stop its invasion. Kyiv lodged the urgent case on February 27, saying Russia had illegally justified its war by falsely alleging genocide in Ukraine's Donetsk and Lugansk regions. Russia has declined to attend the hearing.

Russia's invasion of Ukraine, now on its twelfth day, has seen more than 1.5 million people flee the country in what the UN has called Europe's fastest-growing refugee crisis since World War II.