The CIA director, Bill Burns, met his Russian counterpart in Ankara on Monday in a rare high-level meeting, but the US insists it is not engaged in secret peace talks with Moscow without Ukrainian officials being present.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The meeting in the Turkish capital with the head of Russia\u2019s SVR foreign intelligence service, Sergei Naryshkin, followed speculation that some senior US figures would like Ukraine to enter negotiations with the Kremlin to end the war.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
US officials said the main purpose of the encounter was to convey \u201ca message on the consequences of the use of nuclear weapons by Russia\u201d and to discuss the cases of Americans held in detention in the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
They emphasised that Burns was \u201cnot conducting negotiations of any kind\u201d and \u201cnot discussing settlement of the war in Ukraine\u201d \u2013 after a leak from the Kremlin in the aftermath of Ukraine\u2019s recapture of Kherson.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Russian newspaper Kommersant first reported that a meeting was taking place between the US and Russia in Ankara, and said Naryshkin would be present. The newspaper said it did not know the purpose of the discussion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Kremlin spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, said he could neither confirm nor deny reports, before the US confirmed that Burns, the person normally used by Joe Biden for backchannel discussions, would be present at the meeting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There have been no publicly acknowledged meetings between US and Russian leaders since before the invasion, although there have been some direct phone conversations. The last face-to-face was when Antony Blinken, the US secretary of state, met Sergei Lavrov, Russia\u2019s foreign minister, in Geneva on 21 January.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Last week\u00a0speculation emerged\u00a0that some senior White House advisers would prefer to see an end to the fighting. Gen Mark Milley, the US\u2019s top military officer, said he believed Ukraine had fought the Russian military to a standstill and there were \u201cpossibilities here for some diplomatic solutions\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But the US agreed to send a further $400m (\u00a3340m) of military aid to Ukraine, taking the total to $18.9bn since January 2021 \u2013 and Biden insisted at the G20 summit there were no secret negotiations going on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I\u2019ve been very clear that we\u2019re going to continue to provide the capability for the Ukrainian people to defend themselves. And we are not going to engage in any negotiation. There\u2019s nothing about Ukraine without Ukraine. This is a decision Ukraine has to make,\u201d the president said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Biden was speaking after\u00a0he met China\u2019s president, Xi Jinping, in Bali, Indonesia. Afterwards, Biden said he and Xi \u201creaffirmed our shared belief in the threat or the use of nuclear weapons is totally unacceptable\u201d \u2013 reinforcing what the US said was Burns\u2019s key message.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In its readout of the meeting, Beijing said \u201cChina is highly concerned with the current situation in Ukraine\u201d but made no reference to the nuclear issue. A \u201cconfrontation between major powers must be avoided\u201d, Beijing added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Russia\u2019s president, Vladimir Putin, is not attending the G20, but Moscow is represented by Lavrov. The Associated Press, citing Indonesian officials, reported that Lavrov was taken to hospital where he was briefly treated for a heart condition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Russia\u2019s foreign ministry denounced the reports as \u201cthe height of fakery\u201d, as the spokesperson Maria Zakharova posted a video of Lavrov sitting outdoors on a patio, dressed in shorts and a T-shirt, reading documents. The minister said speculation about senior Kremlin officials\u2019 health was \u201cnot new in politics\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ukraine\u2019s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, on Monday made a surprise visit to the southern city of Kherson to celebrate its recapture after eight months of Russian occupation. \u201cWe are moving forward. We are ready for peace, peace for all our country,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Zelenskiy said it was important to visit Kherson to show residents his support and to demonstrate that \u201cwe are really returning, we really raise our flag\u201d. He said: \u201cI\u2019m really happy, you can tell by the reaction of the people, their reaction is not staged.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He sang the national anthem as the Ukrainian flag was raised over the city. Asked where Ukrainian forces might advance next, he said: \u201cNot Moscow \u2026 we\u2019re not interested in the territories of another country.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Minutes before Zelenskiy arrived, nearby shelling could be heard in the centre of Kherson and blasts of artillery gunfire echoed over the city. Heavy fighting continues across the region, as Ukrainian troops are likely to attempt consolidating control of the western bank in the coming days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After two nights of jubilation following the liberation of their city, on Sunday Kherson residents began to assess the extent of the damage wreaked by the Russian occupation, with many homes still without electricity and water.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On Sunday, Zelenskiy accused Russian soldiers of war crimes and of killing civilians in Kherson.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cInvestigators have already documented more than 400 Russian war crimes. Bodies of dead civilians and servicemen have been found. The Russian army left behind the same savagery it did in other regions of the country it entered,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Thousands of mines, tripwires and unexploded shells have been left by the troops. The retreating Russians comprehensively destroyed all critical infrastructure including communications, electricity, water, heat, a 100-metre-tall TV tower and at least four bridges.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In New York, the UN General Assembly approved a resolution calling for Russia to be held accountable for violating international law and made to pay reparations for widespread damage and loss of life in Ukraine.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The CIA director, Bill Burns, met his Russian counterpart in Ankara on Monday in a rare high-level meeting, but the US insists it is not engaged in secret peace talks with Moscow without Ukrainian officials being present. The meeting in the Turkish capital with the head of Russia\u2019s SVR foreign intelligence service, Sergei Naryshkin, followed […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":27322,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_post_source_name":"","_post_source_url":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[11261,6850,3152,8311,8217,12168,7358,6263,5178,11941,6044,11526,11583,5145,9331,6848,6083,9304,12246,6712,5800,6778,5345,6046,8493,9947,12634,10598,6825,8124,8995,10954,5252,2471,7601,10454,1152,6843,10342,6632,9833,5572,6779,5340,8000,990,6666,11057,5396,9126,7039,5424,3805,71,3457,5217,5659,3852,7211,5618,7931,9178,5180,6885,5555,5465,1687,6348,1151,8033,694,6886,5251,5761,8869,5724,6571,2982,7898,8327,6874],"class_list":["post-27321","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-accused","tag-aid","tag-ankara","tag-antony-blinken","tag-army","tag-artillery","tag-bank","tag-beijing","tag-biden","tag-bill","tag-blinken","tag-burns","tag-capital","tag-cia","tag-city","tag-civilians","tag-dead","tag-detention","tag-diplomatic","tag-dmitry-peskov","tag-electricity","tag-engaged","tag-foreign-minister","tag-g20","tag-g20-summit","tag-gunfire","tag-health","tag-homes","tag-hospital","tag-indonesia","tag-infrastructure","tag-international","tag-invasion","tag-joe-biden","tag-kherson","tag-killing","tag-kremlin","tag-lavrov","tag-law","tag-maria-zakharova","tag-meeting","tag-military","tag-military-aid","tag-moscow","tag-negotiations","tag-new-york","tag-nuclear","tag-nuclear-weapons","tag-peace","tag-peace-talks","tag-phone","tag-politics","tag-president","tag-putin","tag-russia","tag-russian","tag-russian-soldiers","tag-russians","tag-sergei-lavrov","tag-soldiers","tag-territories","tag-troops","tag-ukraine","tag-ukraines-president","tag-ukrainian","tag-un","tag-un-general-assembly","tag-us","tag-us-secretary-of-state","tag-video","tag-vladimir-putin","tag-volodymyr-zelenskiy","tag-war","tag-war-crimes","tag-water","tag-weapons","tag-white","tag-white-house","tag-xi","tag-xi-jinping","tag-zelenskiy"],"blocksy_meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27321","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27321"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27321\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27322"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27321"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27321"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27321"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}