Board Game Arena

10:26 - Analysis
What does neutrality mean for Ukraine?
Jonah Fisher -BBC News, Lviv

In his interview with Russian journalists, President Volodymyr Zelensky signalled that Ukraine was now in a position to talk about neutrality if the fighting stopped.

"Security guarantees and neutrality, a non-nuclear status of our state. We are ready to go for it," he said.

On the face of it, it sounds like something of a breakthrough.

With neutrality, Ukraine would also renounce its ambition to join the security alliance Nato, one of the reasons Russia cited for launching the invasion in the first place.

But there are a number of important caveats.

Firstly, the security guarantees: President Zelensky made it clear in the interview that for a deal to work, Western countries would have to commit themselves to a "serious agreement" to support Ukraine.

Secondly, President Zelensky says Russia would have to withdraw to its pre-invasion 24 February positions. Having fought so hard to gain ground, it's very hard to see Russia agreeing to this, particularly in the south and east.

Thirdly, there's the process. If Ukraine was to adopt neutrality, President Zelensky says there would need to be a referendum and constitutional changes, which could take up to a year. Would Russian President Vladimir Putin really agree to stop fighting if the Ukrainian people could then reject the key concessions he’d extracted from President Zelensky?

And finally and most important of all, there's the unanswered question of what Russia actually wants from this war.

Is it about security and Ukraine's Nato ambitions as was first claimed? Is it about more territory in eastern Ukraine? Or is President Putin determined to permanently disable Ukraine’s ability to function as an independent sovereign nation?

12:36
Officials deny censorship in Russia

Steve Rosenberg - BBC Russia editor

Photo: President Zelensky
Copyright: EPA
Image caption: Zelensky's interview with Russian journalists has yet to be shown on TV news bulletins in Russia

Russian officials deny there is censorship in Russia. Only laws that need to be obeyed.

In fact, under the country’s constitution, censorship is forbidden.

But in recent months freedom of speech and information in Russia have been under attack.

When state media regulator, Roskomnadzor, warned Russian media against publishing President Zelensky’s unexpected interview with four prominent Russian journalists, it did so without citing any legal basis.

That reflects the Kremlin’s determination to control the messaging about its ‘special military operation’ in Ukraine.

Plus, its concern that public opinion may turn against the offensive if Russians access alternative viewpoints.

Photo: Deleting social apps on a mobile phone
Copyright: Getty Images
Image caption: Nearly all independent Russian news outlets have either been blocked or shut down in recent weeks

That’s why alternative views are being silenced. In recent weeks, nearly all independent Russian news outlets – radio, TV and online – have either been blocked or shut down.

And changes to the law make spreading “fakes” about the Russian armed forces a criminal offence, punishable by up to fifteen years in prison.

Some Russians have managed to access President Zelensky’s interview online.

But in Russia television remains the most powerful tool for shaping public opinion.

And, so far, the interview hasn’t been mentioned in the TV bulletins here.



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A personal addendum here: This is why I have spent time almost every day for the last month copying and pasting information that would otherwise be censored on here.

Thank you for the information! I hope it's ok if I share this in the #StandWithUkraine group

https://boardgamearena.com/group?id=11619509

For sure

Abramovich suffered suspected poisoning at talks
Published1 day ago

It was another day of busy developments in Ukraine on Monday - with one story grabbing immediate attention.

Sources close to the Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich said he had suffered symptoms of a suspected poisoning following peace talks on the Ukraine-Belarus border earlier this month.

The Chelsea FC owner - who has now recovered - reportedly suffered sore eyes and peeling skin.

A report in the Wall Street Journal said the alleged poisoning was orchestrated by hardliners in Russia who wanted to sabotage the talks.

Both Ukrainian and American officials have played down the reports.

However, our security correspondent Frank Gardner says it would hardly be surprising that the US would want to dampen down suggestions that anyone - especially Russia - had used a chemical weapon in Ukraine, as this could push them into retaliatory action that they are extremely reluctant to take.



How many Ukrainians have fled their homes and where have they gone?
Published21 hours ago

More than ten million people have now fled their homes in Ukraine because of the Russian invasion, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees says.

As well as the 3.8 million who have left for neighbouring countries, another estimated 6.5 million people are thought to be displaced inside the war-torn country itself.

Where are people fleeing inside Ukraine?
The UN's figure is based on research carried out by the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) between 9 and 16 March.

Of the 2,000 internally displaced people it surveyed:

nearly 30% had come from Kyiv, more than 36% had fled from the east of Ukraine and 20% had come from the north
nearly 40% were now in the west of Ukraine, with less than 3% in Kyiv
only 5% had left their homes in anticipation of the invasion, with the vast majority fleeing either at the start of the war or when it reached their area
The IOM estimates that more than half of the people who are internally displaced are women, and many are deemed particularly vulnerable because they are pregnant, have a disability or are a victim of violence.

What is being done for people fleeing inside Ukraine?
The UN, which is working alongside other organisations to provide help to people in Ukraine, says it is offering humanitarian assistance "wherever necessary and possible". This includes:

giving cash to people for basics like food and rent
delivering supplies from west to east, including food and tarpaulins for homes damaged by shelling
providing folding beds to people in bomb shelters
setting up reception and transit points for internally-displaced people
As well as the 6.5 million people who have left their homes, about 12 million are thought to be stranded or unable to leave areas affected by the fighting.

Which countries are Ukraine's refugees going to?
Refugees are also crossing to neighbouring countries to the west, such as Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Hungary and Moldova.

The UN says that as of 27 March, 3.6 million people have left Ukraine:

Poland has taken in 2,293,833 refugees
Romania 595,868
Moldova 383,627
Hungary 354,041
Slovakia 275,439
Russia 271,254
Belarus 9,075
Some people have travelled from Moldova into Romania and so are included in both countries' totals, the UN says.

How are refugees leaving Ukraine?
Trains heading towards Ukraine's border have been packed, and there have been long queues of traffic on roads leading out of the country.

Photo: Refugees at Lviv National University of Veterinary Medicine and Biotechnology, Ukraine
IMAGE SOURCE,GETTY IMAGES
Image caption, The UN estimates that 6.5 million people are displaced inside Ukraine

Refugees don't need all their official documents, but it is helpful if they can provide provide identification cards or passports, birth certificates of children travelling with them and and medical documentation.

To get refugee status, they need to be Ukrainian citizens or people legally living in Ukraine, such as foreign students.

There have been reports of people from African countries being prevented from leaving Ukraine.

What help are countries offering refugees?
In countries bordering Ukraine, refugees can stay in reception centres if they can't stay with friends or relatives. They are given food and medical care, and information about onward travel.

The EU has granted Ukrainians who flee the war a blanket right to stay and work throughout its 27 member nations for up to three years.

They will also receive social welfare and access to housing, medical treatment and schools.

The government of Poland, which has received the highest number of refugees, has said it will need more money than the EU is currently offering in order to host the number of people arriving there.

Moldova, which has by far the largest concentration of refugees per capita, has also appealed for international help in dealing with the numbers arriving.

What is the UK doing to help Ukrainian refugees?
The UK launched a family visa scheme for Ukrainians who have an immediate or extended family member in the UK.

As of 27 March, 21,600 UK visas had been issued.

After the UK government was criticised for the speed and scale of its response, it also launched the Homes for Ukraine scheme.

Under this, people in the UK can nominate an individual or family to stay with them rent-free for at least six months.

Refugees who come via the scheme will be able to live and work in the UK for up to three years, and access healthcare, welfare and schools.

Applications are made online, and both hosts and refugees will be vetted. Hosts will receive £350 a month and there will be no cap on the numbers able to come to the UK.

However, some families who have applied to be sponsors have complained that the system is too slow and complicated.

Why the Red Cross has to be neutral in the Ukraine conflict
By Imogen Foulkes
BBC News, Geneva
Published11 hours ago

Photo: An ICRC representative talks with a Ukrainian woman in her village, situated on the line of contact between a Ukrainian government controlled area and non-government controlled area on October 26, 2018 in Luhansk, Ukraine.
IMAGE SOURCE,GETTY IMAGES
Image caption, The ICRC has been working in eastern Ukraine since the conflict there started in 2014

The International Committee of the Red Cross has condemned what it calls a "widespread and systematic campaign of misinformation" about its work in Ukraine.

These are strong words from the famously neutral organisation, and reflect deep concern that its humanitarian operations worldwide could be undermined by what appears to be a co-ordinated strategy designed to destroy trust.

"It is a targeted deliberate campaign, discrediting the ICRC and its work. It's unacceptable," said the organisation's director general, Robert Mardini.

For at least two weeks, across multiple social media platforms, criticism and false accusations against the ICRC have been appearing, in Ukrainian and in Russian. One of the most damaging is the claim that the organisation has supported "forced evacuations" of Ukrainian citizens across the border into Russia.

This, Mr Mardini said "is absolutely not correct. The ICRC will never support or facilitate any operation that goes against the will of the people. The rules of war say that civilians must be protected everywhere, where the conflict is happening, and when they choose to leave because the situation is untenable, it should be of their own free will."

Communication with both sides
Another focus of criticism has been ICRC President Peter Maurer's visit to Moscow, where he was pictured shaking hands with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. For some in Ukraine, the optics may not be ideal, but Mr Maurer was in Kyiv before he was in Moscow, and he shook hands there too.

The ICRC is the guardian of the Geneva Conventions; the only side it will ever take in a conflict, says Mr Mardini, is the side of civilians, the wounded, prisoners of war, and the rules of war themselves.

Russian and Ukrainian mothers want to know the fate of their sons; if they are prisoners, they want to know where they are, and they want to write to them. If they are dead, they would at least like to be able to bury them. In war, it's the ICRC's job to facilitate this.

Peter Maurer went to Kyiv and Moscow to urge both sides to co-operate in sharing information about the dead and about prisoners.

"These are concerns that should transcend politics," said Robert Mardini. "These are the basics of humanity."

Why not speak out?
But Peter Maurer also went to Moscow to urge humanitarian access to besieged Ukrainian cities such as Mariupol. Under the Geneva Conventions, civilians have a right to the basics of life: food, water, medical care. They also have a right to leave a conflict zone safely if they want to.

So far, despite repeated appeals from both the Red Cross and the United Nations for humanitarian corridors, this hasn't happened.

Families huddled, cold and hungry, in Mariupol's cellars may be angry that the guardian of the Geneva Conventions has not publicly lambasted the Russian army for not respecting those conventions.

Photo: ICRC operating in Ukraine before the current crisis
IMAGE SOURCE,YEVGEN NOSENKO/ICRC
Image caption, The ICRC is the guardian of the Geneva Conventions

But public dressing downs are not the ICRC's style. Way back in 2004, when hideous pictures of US soldiers abusing Iraqi prisoners in Abu Ghraib prison emerged, it became clear the ICRC had known about this abuse for some time. Rather than going public with its evidence, it chose to continue quiet diplomacy with Washington, and continue regular visits to Abu Ghraib.
"We're not some dial-a-quote organisation," an ICRC officer told me at the time, "there are human rights groups for that."

Preserving access to civilians suffering in war zones, to detainees and prisoners of war, is the ICRC's number one priority. Its strategy is to explain the rules of war to the warring parties privately, but not to go running to the media when it learns violations are taking place. That, the argument goes, could put an end to the access.

'Time is running out'
But there are exceptions. During the war in the former Yugoslavia, the ICRC denounced the "detention and inhuman treatment" of innocent civilians. In Rwanda, while refraining from using the word genocide, its delegates in the field made public statements about "systematic carnage", and "the extermination of a significant portion of the civilian population."

And in Ukraine, the ICRC's latest statement says "the level of death, destruction and suffering that continues to be inflicted on civilians is abhorrent and unacceptable." For civilians in Mariupol, Robert Mardini worries, "time is running out".

Photo: ICRC operating in Yemen (archive photo)
IMAGE SOURCE,JÉRÔME SANTANDREA/ICRC
Image caption, The ICRC has operated in many conflicts around the globe

The task now though will be to ensure that trust in the ICRC's work is not damaged further. It remains unclear who is behind the campaign of misinformation, but the ICRC is convinced it is targeted and deliberate.

This week the office of the Ukrainian Red Cross was hit by a Molotov cocktail. The ICRC and its local Red Cross and Red Crescent partners are not armed, and they never travel with armed guards. Their protection, Robert Mardini says "is the red cross".

He points to what the ICRC can do, when trust is there: prisoner exchanges in Yemen, the release of kidnapped Nigerian school girls, the safe evacuation of civilians from Aleppo.

"We need to ensure we are perceived as neutral and impartial. This neutrality, international humanitarian law, when it works, it does save lives.

"At the end of the day, this, the rules of war, is the frontier between barbarism and humanity. So we will always keep pushing for this."

Twelve dead in strike on Mykolaiv governor's office
Published11 hours ago

Video
Media caption, Watch: The moment a missile tears a hole through a government building in Ukraine.

A Russian strike on a government building in the Ukrainian city of Mykolaiv has killed 12 people and injured more than 20 others, Ukrainian officials say.

A rocket tore a hole through the nine-storey building shortly before 09:00 local (06:00 GMT) on Tuesday morning.

The attack destroyed the office of the regional governor, Vitaliy Kim, who was not there at the time.

Authorities are still searching for more survivors in the rubble.

The building also houses the offices of the Mykolaiv regional state government.

Emergency services say at least 22 people were also wounded.

In a video address to the Danish Parliament, Ukraine's President Zelensky condemned the attack: "There were no military targets in Mykolaiv. The people of Mykolaiv posed no threat to Russia."

Image shows damaged building
IMAGE SOURCE,REUTERS
Image caption, Ukrainian rescue services say they have so far pulled 18 survivors out from the rubble

Mr Kim accused the Russian forces of waiting until people arrived for work in the morning before targeting the site.

"I had overslept. But - I got lucky," he said. "The majority escaped miraculously, I don't know how."

For several weeks, Ukrainian forces in Mykolaiv have repelled Russian attempts to seize the southern port city, blocking Russia's advance west along the Black Sea coast.

A woman living opposite the building said she believed the decision to target the strike on Mr Kim's office was deliberate.

"He [Putin] had to remove him, because he gives confidence and strength to our people, our soldiers, volunteers, those who are on the front line," Svetlana said.

It "infuriates Putin and his followers the fact that he [Kim] doesn't give up and doesn't let them go further to Odessa."

Who is Vitaliy Kim?
The 41-year-old politician has been the governor of Mykolaiv Oblast for less than two years, but it's in the last few weeks that his profile has risen considerably.
When the Russian invasion began, he started posting video updates on the city's defence campaign which have received millions of views.
His cheery videos follow a familiar pattern, beginning with him flashing the 'V for Victory' finger symbol followed by a joke taking aim at the Russian military.
In one of his clips, Mr Kim can be seen smiling at the camera from inside what he says is a captured Russian tank.
"Well guys, now I have my own personal trophy," he says. "With working electronics, now I can have even more fun".
His reputation for humour has attracted him a following from across the country.
In the western city of Lviv, pro-Ukraine beers are sold with Mr Kim's cartoon on their packaging, depicting him in a vest as one of seven members of Ukraine's "fight club".

Speaking to the BBC's Andrew Harding earlier this month, Mr Kim said the invading Russian forces had underestimated Mykolaiv's resistance, expecting "to be greeted with flowers" upon arrival.
Instead the city became a fiercely contested battleground.

"When the war finishes, we want tourists - not the Russian type with guns," Mr Kim said in an interview with The Times.
"We want to show them that we are a proud city and that is the reason we will never let the enemy in here".

Does video show Russian prisoners being shot?
By Reality Check & BBC Monitoring
BBC News
Published15 hours ago

Montage of still from the video
Image caption, Stills from a video claiming to show mistreatment of Russian prisoners

Ukrainian authorities are investigating video footage which has been claimed to show Ukrainian soldiers shooting Russian prisoners of war in the legs.
The grainy video has been circulating on social media after first appearing in the early hours of Sunday morning (27 March). Since then, it's been widely reposted by pro-Russian accounts on various platforms.

Ukrainian armed forces Commander-in-Chief Valerii Zaluzhnyi said Russia was "filming and distributing staged videos" in order to discredit Ukraine's treatment of Russian prisoners.
However, Oleksiy Arestovych, an adviser to the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky, said there would be an immediate investigation and added: "I would like to remind all our military, civilians and defence forces that abusing prisoners of war is a war crime."

The BBC has been analysing the video but has not been able to independently verify it yet. As we continue to examine the footage, here is what we have found out so far.

What does it show?
The footage - which is too graphic to show in full - purports to show a number of captured soldiers lying on the ground. Some have bags over their heads, and many appear to be bleeding from leg wounds. It is not clear how or when they were injured.
The prisoners are questioned by their captors, asking them about their units and activities in the area.

At one point, three men are brought out of a vehicle and apparently shot in the legs by a soldier with an assault weapon.
These men are then questioned.

Where was it filmed?
By Sunday evening, a Twitter user had suggested the video was filmed in a dairy plant in Malaya Rohan, to the south east of Kharkiv. The BBC has used geo-location tools to confirm the location. The area had recently been re-taken by Ukrainian troops from Russian forces.

Analysing satellite images and pictures from the farm, we can identify clues about the location of the video.

Before the three soldiers are shot, we can recognise elements of a house behind one of them. A tree (1), a chimney (2) and the top half of a window (3) are very similar to those in a previous image (from 2017) of the dairy surroundings which we found on the farm's Google web page.

In the video, the house is partially obscured by a white structure in the yard.
Image of the farm from open source images confirming its location

In another section of the video, with soldiers lying in the foreground, there are more visual clues.

The white structure (4) and the chimneys (1), the trees and the black wall (2) are all present in the main open space of the farm.

Open source mapping confirming the location of the farm
The BBC has attempted to contact the dairy.

When was it filmed?
The video footage has no time or date stamp and there is no available metadata which would allow us to determine exactly when it was filmed.

But glimpses of the sky show clear conditions and the ground is dry.

Weather reports from the Kharkiv area suggest the video could have been shot on Saturday 26 March. The weather on Friday and Saturday was dry, sunny but cold, while during the night between Saturday and Sunday a light rain was recorded in the region.

Looking at the position of the sun in some of the video frames, it suggests that the footage could have been filmed in the early hours of the day.

What's being said?
The prisoners are being questioned in Russian. A BBC Monitoring languages expert says the accents of the questioners "are in line with what you'd expect from Ukrainians speaking Russian".

Another expert confirmed that they seem to have eastern Ukrainian accents, pointing to the use of "hovorit" ("speak") rather than the Russian "govorit".

At one point, one of the captives is accused of shelling Kharkiv, another is asked about his nationality and replies that he is Azeri (not an ethnic Russian).

One of the captives says he is stationed in Biskvitne, which is close to the village of Malaya Rohan and the dairy we've identified.

Who are the soldiers?
The accents of the captors are consistent with them being Ukrainians from the east of the country. That, however, does not confirm they are Ukrainian soldiers - it remains possible they could be pro-Russian separatists from this region.

They're also wearing uniforms with blue armbands as used by Ukrainian forces, although again this is by no means conclusive.

Still from the video showing soldier wearing a blue armbands
Image caption, Soldiers often wear coloured armbands for identification during conflict

There are no regimental badges or other forms of ID visible making it very difficult to identify them.
Ukrainian forces were in the vicinity however.

Over the weekend of 26-27 March, a video was posted online showing the activities of the Kraken unit, affiliated with the far-right National Corps political grouping. The BBC has geo-located footage from this video to the village of Vilkhivka, 3.5 miles (5.6km) from Malaya Rohan. The weather is similarly sunny and dry.

The group said 30 Russians were taken prisoner in the village on 25 March and the Kraken video has footage of PoWs bound, blindfolded and being bundled into a van at one point and forced to sing the Ukrainian national anthem at another point. But there is no shooting or serious violence towards them.

Still from the video showing a soldier carrying a camouflaged assault weapon
In the video of the alleged shootings at the dairy, one of the soldiers walks past carrying a distinctive, camouflaged assault rifle.

We asked Nick Reynolds, a military expert from the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), to examine this part of the footage.

"It looks similar to the way that Ukrainian SOF [special forces] camouflage their assault rifles," he told us, "but the weapon looks subtly different to any that I've seen."

He also pointed out that both sides have captured weapons from each other so it is difficult to be definitive about the gun.

Questions about the shootings
In the most disturbing part of the video, three men appear to be shot in the legs at close range with an assault weapon.

There's been some debate on social media as to whether the footage is genuine or staged, with some people claiming there isn't enough blood, evidence of exit wounds or shouting and screaming from the victims for it to be real.

We showed the video to several trauma surgeons and former military doctors who gave us their expert opinion but wished to remain anonymous.

One said he had treated soldiers who had sustained gunshot injuries who didn't shout or scream and said the lack of bleeding on some of the wounded soldiers could be explained by them having had a tourniquet applied (visible in the video).

He said: "It is my opinion that the footage cannot be categorised as 'fake' purely based on the images seen. This requires an investigation for war crimes."

Another doctor said: "It appears genuine... these meet the description of punishment shootings to the limbs".

Other people on social media pointed to the lack of apparent recoil on the assault rifle when it was fired, claiming it could have been firing blank rounds.

Mr Reynolds points out that the AK-74's 5.45mm round is small-calibre and has very little recoil but he also added "the video quality isn't great".

The BBC is continuing efforts to verify this video and will update this piece if more evidence comes to light.

Reporting by: Alistair Coleman, Daniele Palumbo, Shayan Sardarizadeh, Richard Irvine-Brown, Vitaly Shevchenko and Paul Myers.

Ukraine war: Russia says it will curb Kyiv assault as peace talks progress
Published3 hours ago

A local man reacts standing in front of a destroyed building after shelling in Chernihiv, Ukraine, 27 March 2022
IMAGE SOURCE,EPA
Image caption, Moscow also pledged to curtail the assault on Chernihiv, which has been encircled by Russian forces

Russia has announced it will "drastically reduce" military combat operations in two key areas of Ukraine "to boost mutual trust" in peace talks.

The decision to scale back operations around the capital, Kyiv, and the northern city of Chernihiv is the first sign of tangible progress from talks.

But it is unclear how extensive any reduction in military activity might be, and Ukraine remains sceptical.

The US and UK also said the pledge should be treated with caution.

On Tuesday, Russia's deputy defence minister, Alexander Fomin, said the country would "radically, by several times reduce the military activity" around Kyiv and Chernihiv.

He added that there had been progress on"the neutrality and non-nuclear status" of Ukraine, which are two key concerns for Moscow.

But Russia's pledge to scale back its forces was met with scepticism. "Ukrainians are not naive people," President Volodymyr Zelensky said in an overnight video address.

"We can say that the signals... are positive, but those signals do not drown out the explosions or Russian shells," he added.

"We've only seen a small number begin to move away from Kyiv," Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said, adding that people should be "prepared to watch for a major offensive against other areas of Ukraine".

The UK Defence Ministry also warned that Russia will likely "seek to divert combat power from the north to their offensive in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions in the east".

Russia has already refocused its campaign on Ukraine's eastern regions. It has suffered a series of setbacks to the north of the capital, Kyiv, and is also seeking to capture a land corridor which stretches along the south coast to the Russian border.

The key word - scepticism
Tom Bateman byline
The discussions lasted around three hours. Very little was leaked, and nearly all media were kept away in a packed area on a pavement outside.

The key points became clear as members of the Ukrainian delegation came out onto the street an hour before the expected finish.

The negotiators said they had proposed to Russia that Ukraine adopt a neutral status in exchange for security guarantees - an international mechanism where guarantor countries would act to protect Ukraine in future.

In return Kyiv would not join Nato, a key Russian demand. This was not a new pledge, but it was spelt out in the clearest detail yet.

Many are sceptical about what Russia's announcement about reducing military operations actually means; whether it's a pledge to pull back or merely an acceptance it has already failed in those areas and will instead turn its full force further east.

Western countries, therefore, are saying they will judge Russia by its actions and not its words.


During the ceasefire talks on Tuesday, Ukraine proposed to become a neutral state in exchange for security guarantees. A key aim of Russia's invasion was to stop Ukraine joining the Nato alliance and Russian officials said the talks had moved to a practical stage.

Ukrainian negotiator Oleksandr Chaly told reporters that its offer of neutrality - which means it would not ally itself militarily with others - was a chance to "restore the territorial integrity and security of Ukraine through diplomatic and political means".

Russian forces have encircled Chernihiv, where officials say up to 400 people have been killed and some 130,000 residents are without heating, electricity or water supplies.

Russia's chief negotiator, Vladimir Medinsky, said talks had been "meaningful" and Ukraine's proposals on neutrality would be put to President Vladimir Putin. However, he made clear that before a presidential summit could happen a treaty would have to be drafted and approved by negotiators, and then signed by foreign ministers.

"This is not a ceasefire but this is our aspiration, gradually to reach a de-escalation of the conflict at least on these fronts," Mr Medinsky told Russian state news agency Tass.


Ukraine's negotiators in Istanbul handed the Russians detailed proposals covering neutrality and other core issues in the conflict:

Ukraine would become a "non-bloc and non-nuclear" state, with no foreign military bases or contingents on its territory
This would have strict, legally binding guarantees from countries including the UK, China, the USA, Turkey, France, Canada, Italy, Poland and Israel which would agree to protect a neutral Ukraine in the event of attack
Ukraine would not enter military-political alliances and any international exercises would require consent of guarantor states
The future status of Crimea, seized by Russia in 2014, would be decided by 15 years of consultations
The future of the eastern areas held by Russian-backed separatists would be discussed by the two presidents.
Ukrainian negotiator David Arakhamia said this framework would enable to ceasefire to be agreed without Crimea and the eastern regions being settled.

The proposals would also enable Ukraine to join the European Union, while barring it from becoming part of Nato's defensive military alliance.

6:25 30 Mar
Russia continues 'illegal acts' against locals - Ukraine
The Ukrainian armed forces have said in a daily update that Russian troops continue to "commit illegal acts" against the local population in Zaporizhzhia in south-eastern Ukraine, and Kherson in the south.

The BBC has not been able to verify the claims but Ukrainian forces said that:

Russia continues to deploy troops to Ukraine
Russian forces continue to raid the homes of local residents, detain pro-Ukrainian activists and government officials
The statement comes in the wake of a Russian pledge at peace talks in Istanbul on Tuesday to "drastically scale down" military operations around Kyiv.


6:29 30 Mar
Russian units returning to Belarus to resupply - UK MoD
Russia's focus on an offensive in the Donestk and Luhansk region is a "tacit admission" that it is struggling to maintain more than one axis of advance, the UK's Ministry of Defence says.

Units which have suffered heavy losses have been forced to return to Russia and Belarus to resupply and reorganise which has placed pressure on "Russia’s already strained logistics", it says.

The MoD adds that Russian forces will likely compensate for reduced ground manoeuvre capability through mass artillery and missile strikes.


6:50 30 Mar
Sounds of artillery heard rumbling from the edge of Kyiv
Explosions have been heard near Kyiv again this morning.

Our chief international correspondent Lyse Doucet said the day began with the wailing of air raid sirens, followed by loud booms from the outskirts of the city that she could feel in the centre of the capital.

And Jeremy Bowen, who's also in Kyiv, tweeted that "many sounds of artillery were rumbling from the edge of the city to the centre".

It is unclear if the explosions are Russian or Ukrainian or both, he said.

Yesterday, following talks, Russia said it intended to reduce operations near the capital - a pledge many western leaders said should be treated with caution.


8:01 30 Mar
'Time will tell truth of Russian pledge' - Chernihiv mayor
The mayor of Chernihiv, Vladyslav Atroshenko, says Russia's pledge to ease its assaults on Kyiv and Chernihiv would be good news if it could be trusted.

But he tells Lyse Doucet that it was only yesterday when "inhuman artillery shelling of several residential areas of the city took place, where about 35 people were hospitalised, where people lost their legs and some people were killed".

He says he never thought he would have to look for refrigerators to keep bodies in because mortuaries are full, or to have to find carpenters to make additional coffins.

"Often the Russians say one thing, but a different thing actually happens. Only time will show how much truth is in those words. We are treating those words very cautiously at the moment," he adds.


8:14 30 Mar
Fighting for Russia will feed my family - Syrian soldier
Syrian fighters are being offer £5,000 a month to fight on the front line for Russia in the war against Ukraine, the BBC has learned.

One Syrian soldier who’s volunteered to fight said he believed Russia was carrying out a massacre in Ukraine, but it was also helping poor Syrians who couldn’t afford to eat.

He said he'd volunteered because of the money on offer. His family doesn’t want him to go, but he was told that they would be paid £37,000 if he was killed.

He said he knew of at least 200 people who had volunteered.

The Ukrainian government and a leading Syrian NGO say 14 recruitment centres have been set up across Syria.