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Ukraine: Russia says little progress in talks, Biden near border in Poland
Ukraine-Russia war: Kremlin negotiator Vladimir Medinsky said Russia was seeking a comprehensive deal in talks with Ukraine covering a whole range of issues, adding Moscow believed Kyiv was trying to stretch out the negotiations.
Russia on Friday said there had been no progress on the main political issues at talks with Ukraine, as its war against the pro-Western neighbour completed a month.
Kremlin negotiator Vladimir Medinsky said Russia was seeking a comprehensive deal in talks with Ukraine covering a whole range of issues, without which coming to an agreement was unlikely. He added Moscow believed Kyiv was trying to stretch out the negotiations. Earlier, he said the two sides were making little progress on the key issues.
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"On minor issues, positions are drawing closer now, but on major political issues we are actually marking time," Medinsky was quoted as saying by Russian news agencies.
Meanwhile, Russia seemed to be scaling back its ambitions in Ukraine to focus on territories claimed by Russian-backed separatists as Ukrainian forces went on the offensive and recaptured stretches on the outskirts of Kyiv. Russia’s military said it was focusing on taking full control of Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region.
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Russia said it had so far lost 1,351 soldiers in the war. The deputy head of Russia's military general staff Col.Gen. Sergei Rudskoi said another 3,825 had been wounded in the campaign.
On Wednesday, NATO estimated 7,000 to 15,000 Russian soldiers had been killed in four weeks of war in Ukraine.
The Russian army further said 4,19,736 civilians were evacuated from Ukraine since its military offensive began in the east European nation.
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So far, Russian troops have failed to capture any major city and instead bombarded and encircled areas laying waste to residential areas and driving around a quarter of Ukraine's 44 million people from their homes.
US President Joe Biden was visiting Poland for a first-hand look at the refugee crisis. Poland has taken in more than half of the 3.7 million Ukrainians who have fled abroad.
Biden arrived on Friday afternoon at the airport in Rzeszow, the largest city in southeastern Poland, where some U.S. troops are based.
