Ukraine-Russian Ceasefire Talks Fail – Russian Ambassador Lavrov Dismisses Hospital Bombing

Talks aimed at reaching a ceasefire in Ukraine went nowhere in Turkey on Thursday as top Russian diplomat Sergey Lavrov denied Russia had attacked its neighbor and dismissed the shocking bomb attack on a Mariupol hospital.

The high-level negotiations were held in Antalya and came as the war entered its third week. Ukraine’s top priority was to reach a deal to allow citizens to flee via humanitarian corridors.

“I made a simple proposal to Minister Lavrov: I can call my Ukrainian ministers, authorities, president now and give you 100% assurances on security guarantees for humanitarian corridors,” Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba told reporters after the 90-minute meeting.

Lavrov refused to agree to a ceasefire in Mariupol, the southern port city where a Russian airstrike on Wednesday hit a maternity and children’s hospital, leaving an unknown number of children and adults buried under rubble, according to Ukrainian authorities.

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Lavrov said the hospital was no longer operational and was being used by Ukrainian forces and claimed Ukrainian forces are using citizens as “human shields.”

“It is not the first time we see pathetic outcries concerning the so-called atrocities perpetrated by the Russian military,” Lavrov told reporters.

Lavrov said Russia is “not planning to attack other countries.”

“We didn’t attack Ukraine, either,” he added.

Lavrov repeated Russia’s conditions for ending the war, including that Ukraine end efforts to join NATO and the European Union and renounce claims to the Crimean Peninsula and the Donbas region.

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The talks were the highest-level effort yet to reach a peace deal, but neither side seemed to go in with high expectations.

“I want to repeat that Ukraine has not surrendered, does not surrender, and will not surrender,” Kuleba said.