No progress in first Russian-Ukraine FMs parley

Ukrainian FM Dmytro Kuleba reported no progress on a truce or humanitarian issues were made at his meeting on Thursday in the Turkish city of Antalya with his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov, the first high-level talks between the two governments since the Russian invasion on Feb. 24. Kuleba said that Lavrov did not commit to a humanitarian corridor for the Mariupol where the situation was most difficult. He described the meeting as “difficult,” and accused his counterpart of bringing Russia’s “traditional narratives” about Ukraine to the table. Lavrov accused Western media of failing to give a balanced report on the maternity hospital bombing. The building, he claimed, was “a military base for Ukrainian extremists.”