Putin ready to send a delegation to Minsk for talks

Russian President Vladimir Putin is prepared to dispatch a delegation to Minsk for negotiations with their Ukrainian counterparts, following an overture in that regard from Ukrainian officials.

Citing presidential press secretary, Dmitry Peskov, Russian daily Kommersant reported that the delegation was set to include representatives from the Ministry of Defence, Foreign Affairs, and the presidential administration.

Later reports however indicated that Ukrainian officials were not willing to travel to Belarus, having instead tabled the alternative of talks in Warsaw.

Nevertheless, there was reportedly no indication of Kiev acceding to Russian demands to surrender.

In an address, Zelensky had gone on to demand security guarantees, adding that the country's fate depended on its army.

French President Emmanuel Macron had previously held a rapid and direct conversation with Russian President, Vladimir Putin, at Zelensky's request.

"It didn’t produce any effect so far as you can see, because the Russian president has chosen war," he reportedly said after the conversation.

Speaking roughly a half hour before Peskov, Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, had said that Russia would only negotiate when Ukraine's armed forces laid down their arms.

He accused Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky of lying regarding his willingness to broach the subject of his country's neutral status.

Lavrov was speaking following a meeting with representatives of Ukraine's two breakaway republics.

"Russia will ensure the demilitarization of Ukraine. Russia will ensure the denazification of Ukraine. We suffered too much from Nazism, and the Ukrainian people suffered from Nazism, so that everything could be turned a blind eye and looked at so lightly," Lavrov said.

Putin also weighed in later during the same day, calling on Ukraine's military "to take power into their hands".