Ukrainian President Zelensky during a video address to the Canadian parliament asked legislators to find a way to convince its NATO allies to get Ukraine’s airspace shut, news agency MIA reports.
“Close the airspace. Please stop the bombing,” Zelensky pleaded.
“How many more cruise missiles have to fall on our cities until you make this happen?”
Meanwhile, the Ukrainian government is beginning to see progress in its negotiations with Moscow on ending Russia’s invasion, presidential adviser Ihor Zhovkva said, according to Ukrainian news agency UNIAN. Talks have been growing “more constructive,” after two days of discussions via video.
“In the early rounds, Russia was not prepared to listen to our position, but only made ultimatums: that Ukraine should surrender, drop our weapons, that our president should sign an act of surrender,” Shovkva said.
“Now Russia has changed its tone a bit.” Shovkva said that the Ukrainian delegation was “cautiously optimistic”, but that a breakthrough could only be achieved by the presidents, Volodymyr Zelensky and Vladimir Putin.
Ukraine is demanding an end to the war and the withdrawal of Russian forces. Moscow’s demands include that Ukraine recognize the annexed Crimean Peninsula as Russian, and the separatist areas in eastern Ukraine as independent states.
