Leaders from Ukraine and Russia are scheduled to meet on Thursday in Belarus for talks as the Russian invasion of the country continues, according to a top aide for Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“As far as I know, the Ukrainian delegation has already departed from Kyiv, is en route … We’re expecting them tomorrow,” Vladimir Medinsky, the head of the Russian delegation, said Wednesday evening, according to the Associated Press.
“According to Medinsky, the two sides agreed on the Brest region of Belarus, which borders Poland, as the site of the talks,” the report added.
The news comes the same day that Ukraine’s emergency service announced in a statement that more than 2,000 Ukrainian civilians have been killed since Russia began its invasion on February 24, 2020.
“Children, women and defence forces are losing their lives every hour,” it said.
According to Axios, Russia recently announced its first acknowledgement of significant casualties, saying that “498 Russian troops had been killed and 1,597 injured. Ukraine has claimed its forces have killed more than 5,300 Russian troops. Neither figures have been independently verified.”
A senior U.S. defense official declined to comment on the accuracy of the Russian numbers, but told Axios, “My advice to anyone would be to be extremely skeptical over any information the Russian Ministry of Defense puts out there. I would be extremely skeptical.”
