LIVE: Third Round of Russia-Ukraine Talks Ends with No Deals

As the Russia-Ukraine conflict continues to intensify, international efforts to evacuate the civilian population to other countries continue. Below are the main developments of this conflict as they happen.

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MARCH 7

Third round of Russian-Ukrainian talks ends without agreements. "The expectations of the Russian side at the negotiations with Ukraine were not met," Vladimir Medinski, the adviser to President Putin, said, adding that the Ukrainian delegation takes home the Russian proposals to study them.

Nevertheless, the Russian chief negotiator stated that Moscow expects the humanitarian corridors to start operating on Tuesday. "The Ukrainian side has given us guarantees of this," Medinski said, as reported by the Interfax news agency.

The ruling 'United Russia' Party proposes to nationalize production of companies leaving the country. Since the launch of the special military operation in Ukraine, dozens of international companies have expressed their intention to cease operations in Russia. The United Russia Secretary Andrey Turchak called these actions "stabbing in the back" and warned against "harsh retaliatory measures".

Russians will pay their debts in rubles to creditors based in hostile countries. The Putin administration issued a decree that will allow Russian companies and individuals to pay their debts in rubles to "certain foreign creditors" located in the United States, Canada, European Union countries, the United Kingdom, Ukraine, Switzerland, Japan, South Korea, and Australia.

A Russian debtor has the option of applying to a Russian bank to open a special account in rubles in the name of the foreign creditor in order to pay the debt in rubles at the official exchange rate. This new temporary procedure will apply to payments exceeding 10 million rubles per month.

 In this way, Russia responds to the sanctions imposed against it by the United States and its allies, which have caused a 45 percent devaluation of the ruble since January. Currently, the price of the Russian currency stands at 137.70 rubles per dollar.

Russia demands adequate protection for its diplomatic representations in France. The Foreign Affairs Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova denounced that the Russian House of Science and Culture, located in the center of the French capital, was attacked with a Molotov cocktail on Sunday night.

"We demand that the French authorities guarantee adequate security for our official representations," she said, recalling that "Russian representations in Ukraine were regularly targeted by this type of attack before 2022... so it makes no sense to suggest that such extremist acts are the expression of a 'justified anger' unleashed by the Russian special military operation."

The EU agrees to start the accession process for Ukraine, Moldova and Georgia. The presidency of the European Union (EU) announced that the 27 member countries agreed to start a process so that Ukraine, Moldova and Georgia can become members of the community. The first step in this direction began with an agreement to invite the European Commission (EC) to submit an opinion on each of the applications for membership.

Among other things, the EC report must analyze whether the candidate countries meet requirements such as respect for the fundamental values of the European Union, the existence of stable institutions that guarantee democracy, and a market economy with basic macroeconomic balances. 

This valuation process could take years. However, if its result is favourable, the EU countries will have to approve the report unanimously and only then can accession negotiations begin.

Ukrainian nationalists are using terrorist tactics, Russia warns. President Vladimir Putin and European Council President Charles Michel discussed humanitarian issues in Ukraine during a phone conversation on Monday. Putin stressed that the Russian military is taking all possible measures to save the lives of civilians, and the main threat comes from Ukraine's nationalists, who "use the tactics of terrorists, hiding behind civilians."

He also mentioned that while Russian forces have declared a ceasefire several times to facilitate the evacuation of civilians along humanitarian corridors, Ukraine's nationalists used violence to prevent civilians from leaving.

Putin called on the European Union to "make a real contribution to saving people's lives, and to put pressure on the Kiev authorities and force them to respect humanitarian law."

The third round of negotiations between Ukraine and Russia begins in Belarus. The third round of talks between Russian and Ukrainian delegations started in Belarus. Russia's chief negotiator Vladimir Medinsky said that he is ready to negotiate the mode of operation of humanitarian corridors for the evacuation of civilians.

So far, these corridors have not been fully implemented due to opposition from the Zelensky regime, which called the Russian plan to evacuate civilians from Kiev, Mariupol, Kharkov, and Sumy to Russian cities "unacceptable."

Prior to the start of this new round, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov announced that his country is willing to cease its military activity if Ukraine changes its Constitution to include a text specifying that this European country is neutral and it will not join the European Union or the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).

Russia also requests that Ukraine recognize Crimea as Russian territory and recognize independence of the Donetsk and Lugansk republics, as reported by USA Today.

The U.K. swears it will welcome more Ukrainian refugees. Prime Minister Boris Johnson's administration is under pressure to admit more Ukrainians after it confirmed that only 50 of 13,500 family reunification applications have been approved so far. Foreign Ministry Secretary of State James Cleverly said the number of Ukrainian citizens granted the permit would increase "very quickly."

The heads of Russian and Ukrainian diplomacy will meet on Thursday. Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Çavusoglu announced that Lavrov and Kuleba will meet on Thursday. The meeting between the three diplomats would take place in the tourist province of Antalya, on the margins of the Antalya Diplomatic Forum, an international meeting in which 168 guests and the EU High Representative for Foreign Policy, Josep Borrell, will participate.

Russia sets humanitarian corridors. On Monday, Russia announced a temporary ceasefire and the opening of humanitarian corridors for the evacuation of civilians from the cities of Kharkov, Kiev, Mariupol, and Sumy.

"Russian forces declare a 'regime of silence' starting at 10:00 (07:00 GMT) on March 7 and the opening of humanitarian corridors," the Russian Defense Ministry announced, adding that the measure was taken in response to the worsening of the humanitarian situation in these Ukrainian cities and to a request made by French President Emmanuel Macron to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

One humanitarian corridor will start from Kiev, pass through Gostomel and Chernobyl, and end in the Belarusian city of Gomel, from which the refugees will be transported to Russia.

From Mariupol, the refugees will be evacuated via two routes: one route will start from Mariupol to Rostov-on-Don in Russia, and the other route will start from Maripol to Mangush in the Donetsk basin. The route from Kharkov will reach Belgorod in Russia and the routes from Sumi will culminate in Belgorod and Poltava.

The opening of these humanitarian corridors was notified to the United Nations, the Organization for Security and Cooperation (OSCE), the International Committee of the Red Cross, and other international organizations operating in Ukraine.

The Russian Armed Forces demanded that Ukraine fulfill all the conditions for the creation of humanitarian corridors that guarantee an organized withdrawal of civilians and foreign citizens.

EU asks China to influence Russia to achieve a ceasefire. The European Union has called on China to use its "influence" over Russia to pressure the Kremlin into agreeing to a ceasefire in the war against Ukraine.

"China has the potential to reach Moscow, because of the relationship, obviously, and we would like China to use its influence to push for a ceasefire and make Russia stop the unprecedented brutal bombing and killing of civilians in Ukraine," said Peter Stano, the spokesman for Foreign Affairs of the European Commission. Previously, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi stated that his country "is already mediating" to try to get humanitarian aid to Ukraine. 

"China is willing to continue playing a constructive role in facilitating dialogue and working with the international community when the situation demands it," he said, adding that China hopes each country puts the emphasis on the respect international norms and principles "and does everything it can to... prevent this war from continuing."

Zelensky calls for a boycott of Russian exports. On Monday, Ukraine's President Volodimir Zelenski insisted on asking the international community for a boycott of Russian exports. Ukraine has long been asking the West not to buy more oil and gas from Russia. So far, however, the United States, the European Union (EU) and the UK have not yet made a decision on the matter.