Russia and Ukraine ‘close to agreeing’ on neutral status, says Sergei Lavrov

A peace deal under which Ukraine abandons its Nato aspirations in return for Russian withdrawal and western security guarantees appeared to inch closer on Wednesday even as Vladimir Putin's troops were accused of killing people queueing for bread in a northern Ukrainian city.

Russia's foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, and the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, suggested talks were making progress despite continued bloodshed and fears from some EU leaders that the Kremlin was toying with Kyiv.

"The negotiations are not easy for obvious reasons," Lavrov told RBC News. "But nevertheless, there is some hope of reaching a compromise. "Neutral status is now being seriously discussed seriously along, of course, with security guarantees. This is what is now being discussed at the talks. There are absolutely specific wordings and, in my view, the sides are close to agreeing on them."

Lavrov's comments risked being undermined by a less than conciliatory televised appearance by Putin with his ministers later on Wednesday in which the Russian president insulted domestic opponents of his war and condemned the west for seeking to destroy his country.

"Any people, and especially the Russian people, will always be able to distinguish the true patriots from the scum and the traitors, and to spit them out like a midge that accidentally flew into their mouths," he said. "I am convinced that this natural and necessary self-cleansing of society will only strengthen our country, our solidarity, cohesion and readiness to meet any challenge.

"If the west thinks that Russia will step back, it does not understand Russia," he said.

In a video address in the early hours of Wednesday, Zelenskiy had also suggested that there was room for compromise, with Russia taking up "more realistic" positions. "Any war ends with an agreement," he said.

But he outlined what he believed was the Ukrainian leader's approach to the ongoing peace negotiations following their talks and said it offered some hope for lasting peace if a Russian ceasefire could be won as a first step.

"Zelenskiy is speaking about making some concessions", he said. "There is an article in the constitution of Ukraine where Ukrainians are seeking Nato and European membership.

"If you are listening to President Zelenskiy, he is prepared to abandon seeking the Nato membership, if there is EU membership guaranteed - not only promised but guaranteed - and if there are some security guarantees on the table."

Zelenskiy painted a horrific picture of the conflict in an address to the US Congress on Wednesday, beseeching Joe Biden's administration to do more on imposing sanctions, encourage US companies to stop trading in Russia and increase the supply of military weapons, in particular by offering fighter jets.

"Peace is more important than income," he said. "I call on you to do more."

He said Russia had turned Ukraine's skies into a "source of death". The US embassy in Kyiv said earlier on Wednesday that a Russian shell or rocket had killed 10 people queueing for bread in the northern city of Chernihiv.

But Zelenskiy also raised in his address the issue of a new security framework that could protect Ukraine in the future in an apparent nod to his plans for peace.

Switching to English from Ukrainian, Zelenskiy said: "I am almost 45 years old. My age stopped when the hearts of more than 100 children stopped beating. I see no sense in life if I cannot stop these deaths. This is the main mission as the leader of my people: brave Ukrainians."

Moscow's lead negotiator, Vladimir Medinsky, said his delegation was seeking a status for Ukraine comparable to Sweden or Austria, EU member states that are not members of Nato. The proposal was confirmed by the Kremlin's spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, on Wednesday morning.

Medinsky told reporters on Wednesday that talks were slow and difficult but said the Kremlin wanted peace as soon as possible.

He said other issues were being discussed, including the status of the Crimean peninsula, annexed illegally by Russia in 2014, and the self-proclaimed republics in Luhansk and Donetsk.

The Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak, who has been directly involved in the talks with Medinsky, responded by saying that "the words about the Swedish or Austrian model of neutrality" failed to reflect the need for Ukraine to have guarantees of security.

"Ukraine is now in a state of direct war with Russia," he said. "Therefore, the model can only be Ukrainian and only about legally verified security guarantees. And no other models or options."

Podolyak said a key part of any deal would be agreement by the west that they would come to Ukraine's aid in the event of any future conflict with Russia and that there would be no hesitation in imposing a "no-fly zone" in such a war.

The apparent development in the talks was welcomed in Brussels, where Nato defence ministers were meeting in person for the first time since the war began on 24 February.

Nato's secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, however, reiterated the agreement among Nato allies that it could not intervene militarily even in a peacekeeping capacity.

There would be "no deployment of air or ground capabilities in Ukraine and that is the united position of our allies", he said. "We see destruction, we see human suffering in Ukraine, but this can become even worse if Nato took actions that actually turned this into full-fledged war between Nato and Russia."

Despite the positive mood music around the peace talks, Russian shelling continued remorselessly on Wednesday. Its forces were accused of dropping a bomb on a drama theatre in Mariupol where about 1,000 people, including children, were thought to be sheltering.

Two people were also confirmed dead overnight in Kharkiv after two residential buildings were destroyed, and Ukraine's foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, said a mayor and his deputy in the port city of Skadovsk were the latest local authority leaders to be kidnapped by the Russian military.