Russia, Ukraine 'close to agreement', says Turkey

KYIV, March 20 (AFP) : Turkey on Sunday said Russia and Ukraine made progress on their negotiations to halt the invasion and the two warring sides were close to an agreement.
"Of course, it is not an easy thing to come to terms with while the war is going on, while civilians are killed, but we would like to say that momentum is still gained," Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said in live comments from the southern Turkish province of Antalya.
"We see that the parties are close to an agreement."
Cavusoglu this week visited Russia and Ukraine as Turkey, which has strong bonds with the two sides, has tried to position itself as a mediator.
Ankara hosted the foreign ministers of Russia and Ukraine in Antalya last week.
Cavusoglu said Turkey was in contact with the negotiating teams from the two countries but he refused to divulge the details of the talks as "we play an honest mediator and facilitator role."
In an interview with daily Hurriyet, presidential spokesman Ibrahim Kalin said the sides were negotiating six points: Ukraine's neutrality, disarmament and security guarantees, the so-called "de-Nazification", removal of obstacles on the use of the Russian language in Ukraine, the status of the breakaway Donbass region and the status of Crimea annexed by Russia in 2014. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has repeatedly appealed for peace, urging Russia to accept "meaningful" talks for an end to the invasion.
"This is the time to meet, to talk, time for renewing territorial integrity and fairness for Ukraine," he said, in his latest video posted on social media on Saturday.
Turkey said it was ready to host a meeting between Zelensky and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
"We are working day and night for peace," Cavusoglu said on
Zelensky calls for urgent talks with Russia, saying in a Facebook video they are the "only chance for Russia to minimise the damage done with their own mistakes".
Zelensky has been pushing for direct talks with Putin.
Moscow claims that several rounds of negotiations have made progress on one of its key demands -- that Ukraine becomes a neutral state. Kyiv, which is demanding international security guarantees, denies its position has changed.
Aid agencies are struggling to reach people trapped in cities ringed by Russian forces where the UN says the situation is "dire."
More than 3.3 million refugees have fled Ukraine since the war began -- Europe's largest refugee crisis since World War II according to the UN refugee agency -- the vast majority of them women and children, according to the UN.
Another 6.5 million are thought to be displaced inside the country.
HYPERSONIC WEAPONS: Russia says for a second day in a row it has fired its newest hypersonic missiles in Ukraine, destroying a fuel storage site in the country's south.
Hypersonic missiles travel faster than the speed of sound and can manoeuvre mid-flight, making them hard to track and intercept.
Russia's defence ministry says it used the technology to destroy a large storage site for fuels and lubricants for the Ukrainian armed forces near Kostyantynivka in the Mykolaiv region.