Ukraine, Russia To Hold Face-To-Face Talks As Zelenskiy Reiterates Offer Of Security Guarantees

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy says Ukraine is prepared to declare its neutrality and consider a compromise on contested areas in the country's east to secure peace ahead of peace talks in Turkey on March 29.

Ukraine's priorities at the talks will be "sovereignty and territorial integrity," Zelenskiy told the nation in his nightly address late on March 27.

"We are looking for peace, really, without delay," he said. "There is an opportunity and a need for a face-to-face meeting in Turkey."

Repeating earlier statements, Zelenskiy said the offer of security guarantees would include keeping Ukraine nuclear-free.

He told the reporters that the issue of neutrality -- and agreeing to stay out of NATO -- should be put to Ukrainian voters in a referendum after Russian troops withdraw. He said a vote could take place within a few months of the troops leaving.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said a cease-fire was the most his country could hope for from the talks. "We are not trading people, land, or sovereignty," he said.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan agreed to host the talks in a call with Russian President Vladimir Putin on March 27, and called for a cease-fire and better humanitarian conditions, his office said.

In a televised address following a cabinet meeting on March 28, the Turkish leader said that separate telephone calls he had been holding with Zelenskiy and Putin were progressing in a "positive direction." He did not elaborate.

Erdogan also said he would meet "briefly" with the Ukrainian and Russian delegations ahead of their talks on March 29. Earlier talks between the sides, both in-person and in video conference calls, failed to make progress.

More than four weeks into its unprovoked invasion, Russia has failed to seize any major Ukrainian city and signaled on March 25 that it was scaling back its ambitions to focus on securing the Donbas region, where Russian-backed separatists have been fighting the Ukrainian Army for the past eight years.

Despite that announcement, Russian troops continue attempts to concentrate around Kyiv, according to a statement on March 28 from the General Staff the Ukrainian military. "Russian troops continue unsuccessful attempts to take positions from which they could attack or surround Kyiv," it said.

A senior U.S. defense official, who spoke to reporters on condition of anonymity, said Russian forces largely remained in defensive positions near Kyiv and were making little forward progress elsewhere in the country.

The mayor of Irpin, a northwestern Kyiv suburb that has been the site some of the heaviest fighting near the capital, said the city had been "liberated" from Russian troops. Interior Minister Denys Monastyrskiy later made the same comment in televised remarks.

British military intelligence said on March 28 that Russia has gained more ground in the south in the vicinity of Mariupol as it fights to capture the port.

Vadym Boychenko, the mayor of Mariupol, said the city on the shores of the Sea of Azov was on the verge of a humanitarian catastrophe and must be completely evacuated. He said about 160,000 civilians were trapped in the city without power.

SEE ALSO: Escape From Mariupol: 'The Dead Were Buried In The Yards'

Data released by Boychenko's office showed 90 percent of buildings had been damaged and 40 percent destroyed, including hospitals, schools, kindergartens, and factories. Boychenko also said almost 5,000 people had died in the city since Russia launched its invasion.

Another official, Tetyana Lomakina, a presidential adviser now in charge of humanitarian corridors, told AFP that about 5,000 people had been buried, but said burials stopped 10 days ago because of continued shelling.

She added that the number of people killed could only be estimated.

Ukrainian member of parliament Inna Sovsun told CNN that Mariupol was in danger of falling. She said it was a "desperate situation for all of us." While Mariupol hasn't fallen yet, she said, "It probably will."

In Washington, U.S. President Joe Biden told reporters he made "no apologies" for saying that Putin "cannot remain in power."

SEE ALSO: Biden: Putin Comment Was Expression Of 'Moral Outrage' Not Call To Remove Him From Power

The words came at the end of a speech in Warsaw on March 26 to cap off a visit to Europe last week, causing a stir when they were interpreted as a call for regime change.

Biden on March 28 said the comment was an expression of "moral outrage," not new policy. He added that he was reacting to behavior "that makes the whole world say, 'my God, what is this man doing?'"

With reporting from AFP, AP, dpa, CNN, and Reuters