'Ukraine ready to talk about ceasefire', says Kyiv as Russian forces advance

"Ukraine was and remains ready to talk about a ceasefire and peace," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy`s spokesman said.

KYIV: The Russian and Ukrainian governments on Friday signalled an openness to negotiations even as authorities in Kyiv urged citizens to help defend the capital from advancing Russian forces in the worst European security crisis in decades.

Ukraine and Russia will consult in coming hours on a time and place for talks, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy`s spokesman Sergii Nykyforov said on social media, offering the first glimmer of hope for diplomacy since the invasion began.

The Kremlin said earlier it offered to meet in the Belarusian capital Minsk after Ukraine expressed a willingness to discuss declaring itself a neutral country, but that Ukraine had proposed Warsaw as the venue. That, according to Russian spokesman Dmitry Peskov, resulted in a "pause" in contacts.

"Ukraine was and remains ready to talk about a ceasefire and peace," Nykyforov said in a post on Facebook. "We agreed to the proposal of the President of the Russian Federation."

But US State Department spokesman Ned Price said Russia`s offer was an attempt to conduct diplomacy "at the barrel of a gun", and that President Vladimir Putin`s military must stop bombing Ukraine if it was serious about negotiations.