Russia has no plans to establish truce, Ukrainian foreign minister says

Russia has no plans to establish a truce, the Ukrainian foreign minister said following a tripartite meeting hosted by Turkiye on Thursday.

"Russia is not in a position at this point to establish a cease-fire. They seek a surrender from Ukraine. This is not what they are going to get. Ukraine is strong, Ukraine is fighting," Dmytro Kuleba told reporters in the resort city of Antalya.

"We are ready to seek balanced diplomatic solutions to put an end to this war, but we will not surrender," he added.

No progress has been made on a cease-fire as Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov was not authorized to discuss the matter, Kuleba said after the meeting which he dubbed was both "easy and difficult."

Saying that he came to the meeting as a "foreign minister who is entrusted to seek solutions and make decisions," Kuleba told reporters that his Russian counterpart "came to listen."

Both parties, however, agreed to continue efforts to seek a solution to the humanitarian situation on the ground, he said.

Kuleba expressed willingness to meet again in the same format of Thursday's meeting "if there are prospects for substantial discussion and for seeking solutions."

He also stressed that as foreign ministers, they should be able to have a "mandate to negotiate issues of peace, security," while voicing readiness to "continue this engagement with the purpose of ending the war in Ukraine, stopping the suffering of Ukrainian civilians, and liberating our territories from the Russian occupying forces."

Responding to a question on military supplies to Ukraine, Kuleba said they had "dedicated most of the time to addressing humanitarian issues on the ground" because he believes that "it is the utmost priority for diplomacy."

"I came here with a humanitarian purpose, to walk out of the meeting with a decision to arrange a humanitarian corridor to and from Mariupol," Kuleba noted.

NATO not ready to act collectively

Kuleba also said Lavrov's main message in the meeting was that "they (Russia) will continue their aggression until Ukraine meets their demands."

On Ukraine's membership to NATO, Kuleba reaffirmed his country's policy to become a full member of the alliance and "enjoy security guarantees provided by the NATO Charter."

"However, we understand that this is not going to happen in a blink of an eye, not even if we're seeing a foreseeable future," he said.

Kuleba further said NATO is "not ready to act collectively to stop the war and protect civilians in Ukraine from Russian air raids," and it is the Ukrainian army and people so far that have ensured Ukraine’s security.

The foreign ministers of Turkiye, Ukraine, and Russia met on Thursday with the aim of reaching a lasting peace as the Russia-Ukraine war has entered its third week.

The high-level tripartite meeting began at 11.20 a.m. local time (0820GMT) on the sidelines of the Antalya Diplomacy Forum in Turkiye and lasted for more than an hour.