Ukraine and Russia to hold talks at Belarusian border - Office of President Zelenskyy

The office of Ukraine’s president has said that a delegation will meet with Russian officials as Moscow’s troops draw closer to Kyiv.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s office said on the Telegram messaging app that the two sides would meet at an unspecified location on the Belarusian border and did not give a precise time for the meeting.

The announcement on Sunday came hours after Russia announced that its delegation had flown to Belarus to await talks.

Ukrainian officials initially rejected the move, saying any talks should take place somewhere other than Belarus, where Russia has placed a large contingent of troops.

The news came shortly after President Vladimir Putin ordered Russian nuclear forces to be put on high alert in response to what he called “aggressive statements” by leading Nato powers.

Speaking at a meeting with his top officials, Mr Putin directed the Russian defence minister and the chief of the military’s General Staff to put the nuclear deterrent forces in a “special regime of combat duty”.

“Western countries aren’t only taking unfriendly actions against our country in the economic sphere, but top officials from leading Nato members made aggressive statements regarding our country,” Mr Putin said in televised comments.

The US ambassador to the United Nations responded to the comments from Moscow while appearing on a Sunday news programme.

“President Putin is continuing to escalate this war in a manner that is totally unacceptable,” ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield said.

“And we have to continue to condemn his actions in the most strong, strongest possible way.”

The alarming step came as street fighting broke out in Ukraine’s second-largest city and Russian troops squeezed strategic ports in the country’s south, advances that appeared to mark a new phase of Russia’s invasion following a wave of attacks on airfields and fuel facilities elsewhere in the country.

The capital Kyiv was eerily quiet after huge explosions lit up the morning sky and authorities reported blasts at one of the airports.

Only an occasional car appeared on a deserted main boulevard as a strict 39-hour curfew kept people off the streets.

Terrified residents instead hunkered down in homes, underground garages and subway stations in anticipation of a full-scale Russian assault.

“The past night was tough – more shelling, more bombing of residential areas and civilian infrastructure,” Mr Zelensky said.

“There is not a single facility in the country that the occupiers wouldn’t consider as admissible targets.”