New round of talks aims to stop fighting in Ukraine

Another round of talks aimed at stopping the war in Ukraine was scheduled for Tuesday as the fighting appeared stalemated on the ground, with the two sides trading control of a town in the east and a suburb of the capital.

Ukrainian forces retook Irpin, northwest of Kyiv, from Russian troops, who were regrouping to take the area back, President Volodymyr Zelensky said late Monday as he sought to rally the country.

“We still have to fight, we have to endure,” Zelensky said in his nighttime video address to the nation. “We can’t express our emotions now. We can’t raise expectations, simply so that we don’t burn out.”

Ahead of the talks in Istanbul, the Ukrainian president said his country is prepared to declare its neutrality, as Moscow has demanded, in comments that might lend momentum to negotiations.

Zelensky said over the weekend that compromise might be possible over “the complex issue of Donbas,” the hotly contested region in the country’s east. It's unclear how that might be reconciled with his stance that “Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity are beyond doubt.”