KYIV – Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s office announced on Sunday that a Ukrainian delegation would meet Russian officials for talks along the Ukrainian-Belarusian border.
Also on Sunday, the 15-member United Nations Security Council voted to have the General Assembly consider Russia’s invasion of Ukraine after Russia vetoed a US resolution condemning Moscow, with China, Indiana and United Arab Emirates abstaining, like on Sunday’s decision.
This is the first Special Session since 1982 to address the situation in the occupied Arab territories area of Golan Heights in Israel.
Zelensky on Sunday also said that Ukraine has submitted an application against Russia to the International Court of Justice, saying it has falsely claimed acts of genocide have occurred in the separatist regions of Luhansk and Donetsk to justify the invasion.
“Russia must be held accountable for manipulating the notion of genocide to justify aggression,” he said.
“We request an urgent decision ordering Russia to cease military activity now and expect trials to start next week.”
The announcement came after Zelensky initially declined Russia’s proposal to meet in Belarus. He said Belarus, which supports Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, is not neutral ground.
“Of course we want peace and want to meet. We want to end the war. Warsaw, [Poland], Bratislava, [Slovakia], Istanbul, [Turkey], and Baku, [Azerbaijan], were offered to Russia. Any other cities are fine with us as long as there are no missiles flying from this country,” Zelensky said.
But the later announcement by Zelensky’s office took into account assurances by Belarusian President Aleksander Lukashenko.
Earlier, at least six countries agreed to suspend Russia from the world’s main payment infrastructure.
The United States, the UK, Germany, France, Canada, Italy and the European Commission agreed to cut a number of Russian banks from the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication, known as SWIFT, as well as limit the Russian central bank’s ability to access their oversea reserves.
They have also agreed to end “golden passports” for Russians and target wealthy individuals that support the invasion of Ukraine.
