Russia's military announced on Tuesday it will "fundamentally" scale back operations near Kyiv, Ukraine's capital, and a northern city, as talks brought a possible deal to end the grinding war into view.

Russian Deputy Defense Minister Alexander Fomin said the move was meant to increase trust in the talks after several rounds of negotiations failed to halt what has devolved into a bloody campaign of attrition.

Fomin is leading the Russian delegation, which also includes negotiator Vladimir Medinsky, in talks with Ukraine, which began on Tuesday morning in Istanbul, Turkey. They are the first face-to-face talks between the two sides since March 7.

The Ukrainian delegation is being led by David Arakhamia, the head of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky's political party in parliament.

Fomin said Moscow had decided to "fundamentally … cut back military activity in the direction of Kyiv and Chernihiv" to "increase mutual trust and create conditions for further negotiations". He did not spell out what that would mean in practical terms.

Ukraine proposed adopting a neutral status with international guarantees to protect it from attack. Turkey, which hosted the talks, said the measures marked the most significant progress yet. Ukraine's military said it had noted withdrawals of some forces around Kyiv and Chernihiv.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has demanded the "demilitarization and denazification of the country," and that Ukraine adopt a neutral status and recognize that the Donbass region in the east and Crimea are no longer part of Ukraine.

Ahead of the talks, Zelensky said his country is prepared to declare its neutrality, as Moscow has demanded, and added that compromise might be possible over "the complex issue" of Donbass.

Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to Zelensky, said there are "intensive consultations going on regarding several important issues, the key among those is an agreement on international security guarantees for Ukraine."

Before the talks began the Kremlin denied Putin had considered using nuclear weapons in Ukraine.

During an interview with the TV channel PBS, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said "no" when an interviewer asked whether Putin had suggested in an earlier statement that he would use nuclear weapons if a third party got involved in the conflict in Ukraine.

"I don't think so. But Putin was quite bold in saying: 'Do not interfere. If you do, we have all the possibilities to prevent that and to punish all those who are going to interfere'," Peskov said.

"No one is thinking about using… even about the idea of using nuclear weapons," he said.

The Kremlin said Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich is not an official member of the Russian negotiating team, but is present at the talks in Turkey to "enable certain contacts" between the two sides.

The Kremlin also dismissed reports that Abramovich, who played an early role in peace talks, had been poisoned, saying they were untrue and part of an "information war".

According to The Wall Street Journal and the investigative outlet Bellingcat, which cited people familiar with the matter, Abramovich and Ukrainian peace negotiators suffered symptoms of suspected poisoning earlier this month after a meeting in Kyiv.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian forces have taken Irpin, a gateway to Kyiv's northwest, from Russian control, Ukraine's Interior Minister Denys Monastyrsky said on Tuesday.

Russia's Ministry of Defence said on Tuesday it destroyed a large fuel base near the settlement of Klevan in Rivne Oblast in western Ukraine using high-precision cruise missiles.

Agencies contributed to this story.

MOSCOW - Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky are likely to meet only after an agreement is ready for signing, Vladimir Medinsky, the head of Russia's negotiation team, said Tuesday.

Before the discussion of a possible meeting of the presidents, a treaty must be prepared and approved by the negotiators, and then endorsed by the foreign ministers, explained Medinsky, also an aide to the Russian president.

This will be not simple especially because the meeting could be a multilateral one with the participation of state guarantors of peace and security to Ukraine, he said after a new round of Moscow-Kiev talks in Istanbul, Turkey.

MOSCOW - The Russian Defense Ministry has decided to significantly reduce military activity in the Kyiv and Chernihiv directions, Russian Deputy Defense Minister Alexander Fomin announced Tuesday.

The decision was made to increase mutual trust between Russia and Ukraine and create the necessary conditions for further negotiations, Fomin said following the new round of Moscow-Kyiv peace talks in Istanbul, Turkey.

According to him, during Tuesday's negotiations, progress was made on the preparation for a treaty on the neutral and non-nuclear status of Ukraine as well as security guarantees to Ukraine.

ISTANBUL - Russia and Ukraine have concluded their first day of fresh round of face-to-face peace talks here on Tuesday, which lasted for approximately three hours, according to media reports.

Ukraine's neutrality, its disarmament and security guarantees, de-Nazification and the removal of obstacles to Russian language usage in Ukraine, are among the topics on the table, local media reported ahead of the meeting.

The talks between Ukraine and Russia in the Turkish city of Istanbul are "difficult", Mykhailo Podolyak, a member of the Ukrainian delegation, said Tuesday.

ISTANBUL - Russia and Ukraine kicked off a fresh round of face-to-face peace talks here on Tuesday in yet another attempt to reach a ceasefire.

Before the meeting, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said the time had come for talks to yield concrete results.

The Turkish leader called for an immediate ceasefire and said a prolonged conflict is not in anyone's interest.

"The world is waiting for good news from you. We are ready for any contribution that can make your job easier," Erdogan said, adding that Turkey is ready to host a meeting between the Russian and Ukrainian leaders.

Since Feb 28, Russia and Ukraine have held three rounds of face-to-face peace talks and a series of online discussions, failing to reach a major agreement.

WASHINGTON - The administration of US President Joe Biden on Monday proposed 6.9 billion US dollars in its fiscal year 2023 budget proposal, which is aimed at addressing what it views as threats stemming from the military conflict between Russia and Ukraine.

"This funding will enhance the capabilities and readiness of US Forces, (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) allies, and regional partners in the face of Russian aggression," read a budget document, referring to what Russia said was a special military operation in Ukraine that started more than a month ago.

Also included in the 5.8-trillion-dollar fiscal year 2023 budget, in which the administration asked Congress to appropriate a total of 773 billion dollars for the Defense Department, is a sum of 682 million dollars for Ukraine "to counter Russian malign influence and to meet emerging needs related to security, energy, cybersecurity issues, disinformation, macroeconomic stabilization, and civil society resilience," according to the document.

Apparent regime change call hosed down in US, but concerns heightened

Whether it was his intention or not, US President Joe Biden's remark in Poland about the status of Russian President Vladimir Putin has turned up the political temperature between the two countries over the military conflict in Ukraine.

In a speech on Saturday at the Royal Castle in Warsaw, Biden said of Putin: "For God's sake, this man cannot remain in power."

A White House official moved to clarify the remark, saying: "The president's point was that Putin cannot be allowed to exercise power over his neighbors or the region. He was not discussing Putin's power in Russia or regime change."

On Sunday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken told journalists in Jerusalem after a meeting with Israel's foreign minister: "We do not have a strategy of regime change in Russia or anywhere else, for that matter. In this case, as in any case, it's up to the people of the country in question. It's up to the Russian people."

The remark about Putin, which reportedly was not part of the speech text, was seen as a distraction from the goal of ending the conflict.

"What it tells me, and worries me, is that the top team is not thinking about plausible war termination," Michael O'Hanlon, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution told The Washington Post. "The only way to get to war termination is to negotiate with this guy.

"When you say this guy must go, you've essentially declared you're not going to do business with him. However appealing at an emotional level, it's not going to happen. We can't control it, and it probably won't take place anytime soon."

Richard Haass, president of the Council on Foreign Relations, told the Post: "There ought to be two priorities right now: ending the war on terms Ukraine can accept, and discouraging any escalation by Putin. And this comment was inconsistent with both of those goals."

James Freeman, a columnist for The Wall Street Journal, was blunter in his assessment. "Some issues are just too important to be left to an unscripted Joe Biden," wrote Freeman, adding that "these are dangerous times and we would all be much safer if Mr Biden would make greater use of prepared statements on subjects such as, for example, weapons of mass destruction", referring to a recent comment by Biden on US policy on the use of nuclear weapons.

Julianne Smith, the US ambassador to NATO, told the CNN network that the US "does not have a policy of regime change in Russia. Full stop."

Senator Jim Risch of Idaho, the top Republican on the Foreign Relations Committee, said he wished the Democratic president "would stay on script".

'Horrendous gaffe'

Risch told CNN that raising the notion of regime change would "cause a huge problem", calling the remark a "horrendous gaffe" and that "there's not a whole lot more you can do to escalate than to call for a regime change".

On Friday, the White House had to reiterate that US troops will not be going to Ukraine after the president alluded to such a scenario when addressing members of the Army's 82nd Airborne Division in Poland.

An NBC News poll released on Sunday but conducted before Biden's trip to Poland gave him the lowest approval rating of his presidency－40 percent.

The survey of 1,000 people conducted by one Republican and one Democratic pollster found that 71 percent had "just some" or "very little" confidence in Biden's ability to respond to the Ukraine-Russia conflict, including 43 percent of Democrats.

Eighty-two percent said they worried that the Eastern European clash could result in the use of nuclear weapons; 74 percent fear US troops will end up fighting in Ukraine, and 83 percent worry that it will exacerbate high inflation.

On domestic issues, the disapproval rate was 63 percent. The president, as is typical in such surveys, took a good portion of the blame. On inflation, 38 percent blamed Biden.

Agencies contributed to this story.

The much-scrutinized laptop computer of Hunter Biden includes emails that connect the US president's son to biological laboratories in Ukraine, according to allegations by the Russian government and recent media reports.

Moscow has claimed that secret American biological-warfare labs in Ukraine were a justification for its military incursion into its Eastern European neighbor last month. On March 24, the Kremlin alleged that the labs produced biochemical weapons.

"An investment fund run by … Hunter Biden funded research and the implementation of the United States' military biological program. It is obvious that Joe Biden, as his father and the head of state, was aware of that activity," Russian State Duma speaker Vyacheslav Volodin said, according to Russian media. Volodin called for a US congressional investigation and a White House explanation.

"Incoming material allowed us to trace the interaction scheme between US government agencies and the Ukrainian biolab," Igor Kirillov, head of Russia's Radiation, Chemical and Biological Defense Forces said at a March 24 briefing.

American intelligence officials had earlier dismissed Russia's claims as war propaganda, explaining that Ukraine's network of biological labs researching pathogens was not secret and had publicly received funding from Washington.

Russia's new claim, however, that Hunter Biden's investment fund was involved in raising money for biolab projects in Ukraine is accurate, according to emails first obtained by the New York Post and initially reported by the Daily Mail of London on March 25.

Rosemont Seneca Technology Partners invested $500,000 in Metabiota, a pathogen-research company headquartered in San Francisco, and raised millions more through firms that included Goldman Sachs, according to emails found on the computer, which was abandoned at a Wilmington, Delaware, repair shop in April 2019.

Rosemont Seneca is an investment firm based in Washington DC. It was founded in 2009 by Hunter Biden, Christopher Heinz and Devon Archer.

Heinz is the stepson of former US secretary of state and senator and current climate czar John Kerry. He is also the great-great grandson of Henry J. Heinz, founder of the international food processing company famous for Heinz ketchup. Archer is a businessman who was Heinz's classmate at Yale University.

The Post reported on the laptop after it received data from the computer from Rudy Giuliani, the Republican former mayor of New York and a legal adviser to Donald Trump, in October 2020. The story was denounced as Russian propaganda by former American intelligence officials and Democratic politicians shortly before the US presidential election, in which Joe Biden defeated Trump.

The Post's story was suppressed on social media and resulted in the newspaper's suspension by Twitter, which cited its "hacked materials" policy for not allowing the story to be distributed on its platform, a rule that the social media company has since eased.

The New York Times, in a March 17 story centered on a federal tax investigation into Hunter Biden's business dealings, reported that emails from the laptop were "authenticated".

"People familiar with the investigation said prosecutors had examined emails between Mr. Biden, Mr. Archer and others about Burisma and other foreign business activity," the Times reported. "Those emails were obtained by The New York Times from a cache of files that appears to have come from a laptop abandoned by Mr. Biden in a Delaware repair shop. The email and others in the cache were authenticated by people familiar with them and with the investigation."

Hunter Biden introduced Metabiota to officials at Burisma, the Ukrainian gas company where he was a highly paid board member, for a "science project" involving biolabs in Ukraine, according to the emails.

Metabiota says on its website that it "has over a decade of experience partnering with industry and governments worldwide to build resilience to epidemics and protect global public health".

Metabiota has worked in Ukraine for Black & Veatch, an American defense contractor with ties to military intelligence agencies, which built secure labs in Ukraine, according to the Daily Mail.

Metabiota's then vice-president Mary Guttieri wrote to Hunter Biden about geopolitical issues involving the company's research in the former Soviet republic in April 2014, two months after Russia annexed the Crimea region, according to the emails.

"As promised, I've prepared the attached memo, which provides an overview of Metabiota, our engagement in Ukraine, and how we can potentially leverage our team, networks, and concepts to assert Ukraine's cultural and economic independence from Russia and continued integration into Western society," her memo read.

Sam Faddis, a former senior CIA officer who reviewed the laptop's emails, told the Daily Mail that the offer to help drive Ukraine's independence was unusual.

"It raises the question. What is the real purpose of this venture? It's very odd," he said.

Four days after Guttieri's email, Burisma executive Vadym Pozharskyi wrote to Hunter Biden about an "as you called 'Science Ukraine' project".

"As I understand the Metabiota was a subcontract to principal contractor of the DoD (US Department of Defense) B&V [engineering firm Black & Veatch]," his email read. "What kind of partnership Metabiota is looking for in Ukraine?"

The US awarded $23.9 million to Metabiota later in 2014, with $307,091 allocated for "Ukrainian research projects", government spending records showed.

The younger Biden, 52, boasted to investors that his company organized funding for Metabiota and helped it "get new customers" including "government agencies", according to the emails.

B&V had been commissioned in 2010 by the US Defense Threat Reduction Agency to build a lab in Odessa, Ukraine, to "enhance the government's existing surveillance systems to detect, report and respond to bioterrorism attacks, epidemics and potential pandemics", the company's website said.

"The DoD position is that there's nothing nefarious here; this is pandemic early-warning research," Gaddis told the Daily Mail. "We don't know for sure that's all that was going on."

Hunter Biden remains under federal investigation for possible tax fraud. The probe was widened in 2018 to look into how his international business dealings as a lobbyist and investor coincided with his father's political career. He and the president have denied allegations of impropriety.

Bloc has developed since Cold War 'to better serve US hegemony'

Editor's Note: China Daily presents a series of analyses to make readers around the world better understand the how and why behind China's views and decisions on the Ukraine situation. This is the second installment of the series.

Long before the outbreak of the lingering Ukraine crisis, Beijing had been criticizing NATO's consecutive expansion, reminding the world that the United States-led military bloc is accountable for initiating and fueling the tragedy by providing weaponry.

NATO's presence should have ended at the end of the Cold War, it has a record of creating warfare, and its expanding reach is also threatening the hard-won peace in Asia, officials and scholars said.

"Beijing's negativity on NATO's legitimacy and its frequent expansion is not something recent but a long-standing and consistent position in recent decades," said Yuan Zheng, deputy director of the Institute of American Studies of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

Instead of being buried alongside its traditional rival－the Warsaw Treaty Organization, "NATO has developed into an encompassing grouping to better serve US hegemony and boost defense interdependence among its members, countering the world's pursuit for peace", Yuan said.

NATO convened a summit on Ukraine on Thursday. That day was also the 23rd anniversary of NATO launching 78 days of airstrikes against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia in 1999, targeting everything from medical facilities to schools, killing thousands of people and leaving nearly 1 million people displaced.

"We will not kneel and we will not beg, we want to keep the memory of the victims, and we will never forget what you did to this country and people," Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said at a memorial event on Thursday.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin mentioned on Friday a missile attack in 1999 by NATO forces on the Chinese embassy in Belgrade that killed three Chinese journalists, as well as NATO's use of depleted uranium bombs－prohibited by international conventions－during the airstrikes.

"Before reflecting on their crimes against people in countries like Serbia, Iraq and Afghanistan, the US and NATO have neither the right nor the authority to judge others," he said.

"All those who truly love peace and are committed to advancing peace will resolutely reject NATO's continued expansion," he added.

The US-led NATO is accountable for opening the Pandora's box of the Ukraine crisis, and "Washington, with a huge obsession regarding its hegemony, started meddling in the Ukraine situation back in the 1990s", said Diao Daming, an associate professor of US studies at Renmin University of China in Beijing.

"NATO has kept expanding eastward by adding new members in Europe five times, and US-led Western countries decided to define Ukraine as a geopolitical tool for containing and cornering Russia, leading to the Crimea crisis in 2014 and what is happening right now," Diao said.

Over the past months, NATO members "have stepped up military support, providing anti-tank and air defense systems, drones, fuel and ammunition" to Ukraine, Jens Stoltenberg, NATO's secretary-general, told reporters on Wednesday.

A statement by NATO heads of state and government on Thursday said the bloc "will continue to provide further political and practical support to Ukraine".

The bloc had been playing the role of initiator by providing weaponry before and during the Ukraine crisis, and this role was mirrored and enhanced by US President Joe Biden's recent push to boost NATO deployment in Eastern Europe, said Wang Fan, vice-president of China Foreign Affairs University.

The military bloc serves the US' need to seek absolute security "based on the insecurity of other countries", and now this can be seen in Europe－especially those nations bordering Ukraine and Russia－which stand on the forefront of the humanitarian crisis and face mounting security risks, Wang said.

"The ever-expanding NATO appears omnipotent with regard to many issues, but it seems to be incompetent when it is time to solve issues such as the Ukraine crisis," said Cui Hongjian, director of the European studies department at the China Institute of International Studies.

Vice-Foreign Minister Le Yucheng has openly questioned the legitimacy of NATO, calling it "a Cold War vestige" that "should have been consigned to history alongside the Warsaw Treaty Organization" with the disintegration of the then Soviet Union.

"In recent years, it even went so far as to flex its muscles in the Asia-Pacific. One could well anticipate the consequences of going down this path. The crisis in Ukraine is a stern warning," Le said at a forum on March 19.

The ongoing Ukraine crisis has also triggered increasing concerns in countries and think tanks in the Asia-Pacific region over NATO's role in the area, as well as the US boosting military alliances with countries in the region in order to counter China.

On Feb 11, the Biden administration unveiled a new version of its Indo-Pacific Strategy, saying that "competition with China" was one of the "urgent challenges" and calling for greater alignment and military buildup with its allies in the region.

"Such an 'Indo-Pacific Strategy'is as dangerous as the NATO strategy of eastward expansion in Europe. If allowed to continue unchecked, it would bring unimaginable consequences, and ultimately push the Asia-Pacific over the edge of an abyss," said Le, the vice-foreign minister.

This strategy seeks to build an "Asia-Pacific version of NATO" and safeguard the system of hegemony led by the US. China is ready to work with various parties to boycott the "Indo-Pacific" clique that works for confrontation, Deng Xijun, China's ambassador to ASEAN, said at a virtual news conference on March 21.

Yang Baoyun, a professor of ASEAN studies at Thammasat University in Bangkok, Thailand, said the US strategy "aims to use alignment to create new divisions and rifts among countries in the region, force them to take sides, sabotage existing regional security architecture, and serve US self-interests".

"It is inevitable that the Ukraine crisis will have a spillover effect on Asia. The existing problems in the region, if improperly handled or utilized by outsiders such as the US, may lead to major conflicts," Yang warned.

Several NATO members such as the US and the United Kingdom have sent warships and warplanes to the South China Sea in recent years, prompting strong protests from Beijing.

At a virtual meeting with NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg in September, State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi warned that NATO should "adhere to its original geographical positioning "and play a constructive role in securing the region's peaceful and stable development.

"Washington is still trying to incite countries involved in the South China Sea issue such as Vietnam and the Philippines to counter China," said Chen Xiangmiao, associate research fellow of the National Institute for South China Sea Studies.

It is unlikely that the US will break the strong ties built between China and ASEAN countries, and "it is not fully aware of the resentment of most regional countries toward major countries' competition and their strong concerns that such competition may lead to conflicts", Chen said.

The US' attempt to build up a series of new multilateral alignments in this region "is disrupting and tearing down the regional security architecture with ASEAN at its center," Chen warned.

ISTANBUL - The Russian and Ukrainian delegations have arrived in Turkey's largest city Istanbul on Monday for a fresh round of face-to-face peace talks, aiming to achieve substantial progress to end the crisis.

The Russian delegation has settled in the Ciragan Palace Kempinski hotel while the Ukrainian delegation has checked in the Shangri-La Bosphorus, both very close to each other in the Besiktas district.

Media reports said the arrival of the Ukrainian delegation had been postponed to evening hours due to the closure of Ukrainian airspace and some logistical problems. According to the NTV broadcaster, the Ukrainian delegates had to go to a neighboring country by road to fly to Istanbul.

Tuesday's negotiations will begin at 10:30 am local time (0730 GMT) at the Dolmabahce Presidential Working Office in Besiktas.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is expected to address the delegations at the opening of the meeting.

"We will have a short meeting with the delegations tomorrow morning," Erdogan said at a press conference after a cabinet meeting in the Turkish capital Ankara on Monday.

So far, Russia and Ukraine have held three rounds of in-person talks in Belarus, and their fourth session was in a video conference format.

Turkey, meanwhile, has increasingly accelerated its diplomatic efforts on the international arena, reiterating its policy that it is ready to play a mediator role for lasting peace in the region.

In a phone call on Sunday, Erdogan told his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, that a ceasefire and peace between Moscow and Kiev must be achieved as soon as possible, and the humanitarian situation in the region should be improved.

Erdogan repeated that Turkey would continue to contribute in every possible way during this process.

The "phone traffic" that he has been conducting with Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is progressing in a positive direction, Erdogan said on Monday.

Turkey has been exerting significant efforts to resolve the crisis through agreement and dialogue, he said.

Russian and Ukrainian negotiators will resume face-to-face talks as soon as Tuesday in Istanbul, according to a Russian presidential aide on Sunday, with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky saying that his country is willing to accept neutrality as part of a peace deal.

The holding of the next round of in-person meetings was announced on Sunday by Russian presidential aide Vladimir Medinsky, who also leads the Russian delegation to the talks. Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan earlier that day spoke by phone.

According to the Turkish presidential office, Erdogan told Putin that his country will continue its mediation efforts in an effort to establish peace between Russia and Ukraine.

"President Erdogan stressed the necessity of reaching a truce and peace between Russia and Ukraine as soon as possible, and of improving the humanitarian situation in the region. He added that Turkey will continue to make its contribution to this process," Erdogan's office said.

Medinsky wrote on his social network account earlier on Sunday that a regular round of online talks with Ukraine was held, and he confirmed the agreement for officials from the two sides to meet in person on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Turkey said the talks could begin as early as Monday, but Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that was unlikely as the negotiators would only be arriving on Monday.

Zelensky spoke optimistically about the new negotiations, saying he hoped they would bring peace "without delay" and lamented the effects of a monthlong Russian special military operation.

Neutral status

Ukraine is ready to accept a neutral status as part of a peace deal with Russia, Zelensky said.

Any agreement would have to be put to the Ukrainian people in a referendum, he said. But Zelensky once again stressed his desire to reach a concrete peace agreement.

"Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity are beyond doubt. Effective security guarantees for our state are mandatory," Zelensky said in a late-night video message that also set out his negotiating bottom lines.

Zelensky called for Moscow to halt the bombardment of cities like Mariupol, where officials said the situation is "catastrophic".

Several attempts at establishing safe routes for civilians to flee have collapsed as both sides traded accusations of violating temporary cease-fires.

About 170,000 civilians remain trapped in Mariupol without adequate food, water or medicine, according to Ukraine's foreign ministry. Russia said the Ukrainian military has been holding the civilians as "hostages" in the southern port city.

France, Greece and Turkey hope to launch a "humanitarian operation" to evacuate civilians from Mariupol within days, according to French President Emmanuel Macron.

Macron warned on Sunday against a verbal "escalation" of the situation after United States President Joe Biden called Putin a "butcher" who "cannot remain in power", a remark the Kremlin snapped back at. It said, "a head of state should stay sober".

Macron said he would speak to Putin in the next few days to organize the evacuation of civilians from Mariupol.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said his country is against any suggestion of sending NATO peacekeepers to Ukraine.

"We will not act there in the military sphere even if one calls it peacekeeping troops," he said. "We won't aspire to create a no-fly zone there."

Scholz said he was doing "everything to help Ukraine". Currently "sanctions are the main tool "against Russia, he said.

Leonid Pasechnik, the head of the self-proclaimed republic of Lugansk, said a referendum on becoming part of Russia may be held in the near future.

But the proposal was opposed by Russia's lower house of parliament, with the head of the State Duma Committee on the Commonwealth of Independent States Affairs, Leonid Kalashnikov, saying it's "not the right time to do this now".

More than 4,600 Chinese citizens evacuated from Ukraine have safely returned to China following the arrival of the final special flight in Fuzhou, Fujian province, on Monday, marking the temporary end of the country's evacuation work, Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said.

Since the Chinese government sent the first chartered flight on March 4 to Bucharest, capital of Romania, a total of 20 have been organized to bring back Chinese nationals evacuated from Ukraine after the situation there deteriorated.

"During the whole evacuation process, over 5,200 Chinese citizens were safely evacuated to Ukraine's neighboring countries. All of those citizens who voluntarily left Ukraine have been safely evacuated, except for one individual who got injured while driving," Wang said.

Wang added that as the Chinese government worked on the relocation and evacuation of Chinese nationals, the government and various sectors in Ukraine showed goodwill and provided assistance.

Countries including Russia, Moldova, Romania, Poland, Hungary, Slovakia and Belarus also provided valuable support, he said.

"We would like to express our sincere gratitude to those governments and peoples," he said.

While the evacuation has basically come to an end, the spokesman stressed that the work of protecting the safety and legitimate interests of Chinese nationals overseas never stops.

"With concrete steps, we will show every one of our compatriots overseas that we stand with you at all times, wherever you may be, you have us behind you, behind you is the motherland," Wang added.

Speaking on the Ukraine issue, the spokesman reiterated China's position that sanctions are never an effective means to resolve problems, noting that more than 140 of the 190 members of the United Nations are not participating in sanctions against Russia.

He added that normal trade contacts between Russia and other countries, including China, have suffered unnecessary damage due to sanctions imposed on Russia.

"We urge the United States to seriously take into consideration China's concerns when dealing with the Ukraine issue and US-Russia relations, and to refrain from undermining China's legitimate interests in any form," he said, adding that China will take all necessary measures to firmly safeguard the lawful rights of Chinese companies and individuals.

ISTANBUL - The Russian delegation has arrived in Turkey's largest city Istanbul on Monday for a fresh round of peace talks with Ukraine, the CNN Turk broadcaster reported.

The plane carrying the Russian representatives landed at the Ataturk Airport, which is exclusively used for diplomatic missions, it said.

According to Turkish diplomatic sources, the talks are expected to begin on Tuesday morning.

In a phone call on Sunday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin agreed to hold the next round of negotiations in Istanbul.

Erdogan reiterated that Turkey would continue to contribute in every possible way during this process.

So far, Russia and Ukraine have held three rounds of in-person talks in Belarus, and their fourth session was a video conference.

KYIV - Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that the Ukrainian delegation is looking for peace at the fresh round of talks with Russia, the presidential press service reported Monday.

"Our goal is obvious - peace and the restoration of normal life in our native state as soon as possible," Zelensky said.

As other top Kyiv priorities at the talks, Zelensky listed Ukraine's sovereignty, territorial integrity and effective security guarantees.

On Sunday, a member of the Ukrainian delegation David Arakhamia said the next round of negotiations between Ukraine and Russia would take place in Turkey on March 28-30.

Ukrainian and Russian delegations have held three rounds of negotiations in person in Belarus since Feb 28, and the fourth one started on March 14 in the format of a video conference.

A US professor of international law said the US-led NATO's expansion is the root cause of the Russia-Ukraine conflict.

Francis A. Boyle, a professor of international law at the University of Illinois, made the remarks in an interview to China Daily's Pan Yixuan.

Boyle said former US secretary of state James Baker, during the tenure of then US president George H.W. Bush, as well as many then European NATO states' leaders made a solemn pledge before former Soviet Union leader Mikhail Gorbachev saying NATO would not expand to the east if the Soviet Union agreed to the two Germany's reunification. The promise is binding as a matter of international law, Boyle stressed.

However, according to Boyle, the continuous expansion of NATO has irked Russia, and the US-led NATO rejected Russia's objection, which made the situation deteriorate drastically.

To help address the disaster in Ukraine, Boyle said the US should respond to Russia's concerns about a buffer zone and announce that NATO will not expand, and Ukraine will not join NATO as a member state.

Boyle also said that China could play a bigger role of mediator to ease the crisis.

KYIV - Forest fires, which broke out around the Chernobyl nuclear power plant due to hostilities, cover more than 10,000 hectares, Ukrainian Ombudswoman Lyudmyla Denisova said Sunday.

"We have recorded 31 fires, which caused an increased level of radioactive contamination in the air," Denisova wrote on Facebook.

Ukrainian firefighters are unable to reach the area, which is controlled by Russian forces, Denisova added.

The Chernobyl nuclear plant, some 110 km north of Kiev, suffered one of the worst nuclear accidents in human history on April 26, 1986.

On Feb 24, Mykhailo Podoliak, advisor to the head of the President's Office of Ukraine, said Russian forces had seized the Chernobyl nuclear power plant.

KYIV - Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Sunday that his country stands ready for an all-for-all prisoner exchange with Russia before the end of hostilities, the presidential press service reported.

"I believe that there is an agreement to exchange everyone for everyone, we have this number -- let's exchange for this number," Zelensky said in an interview with Russian media.

He also noted that Ukraine wants to hand over the corpses of Russian soldiers to their relatives.

On Thursday, Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said that Ukraine and Russia conducted the first prisoner swap since the start of the conflict.

Ten Ukrainians held by the Russian military were released in exchange for ten Russian soldiers captured by Ukrainian forces.

Ukraine also handed over to Russia 11 civilian Russian sailors, who were rescued from a sunken ship near Odesa, in exchange for 19 Ukrainian civilian sailors, according to Vereshchuk.

ANKAR - Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, on Sunday agreed to hold the next round of Russia-Ukraine negotiations in Turkey's Istanbul city, the Turkish presidency said.

The two leaders had a phone conversation on Sunday and discussed the latest situation in the Russia-Ukraine conflict and the negotiation process, the Turkish presidency said in a statement.

The two leaders "agreed that the next meeting of the negotiation teams of Russia and Ukraine will be held in Istanbul", the statement said.

During the conversation, Erdogan told Putin that a ceasefire and peace between Russia and Ukraine must be achieved as soon as possible and the humanitarian situation in the region should be improved, adding that Turkey would continue to "contribute in every possible way during this process".

Earlier on Sunday, David Arakhamia, a member of the Ukrainian delegation, said the next round of peace talks between Ukraine and Russia will take place next week in Turkey.

"Today, at the video talks, it was decided to hold the next live round by two delegations in Turkey on March 28-30," Arakhamia wrote on Facebook.

Meanwhile, head of Russia's negotiation team Vladimir Medinsky said the face-to-face talks will take place on March 29-30.

Ukrainian and Russian delegations have held three rounds of peace talks in-person in Belarus since Feb 28, and the fourth one started on March 14 in a format of video conference.

Previously, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and his Ukrainian counterpart, Dmytro Kuleba, met in a resort town of Turkey's southern province of Antalya on March 10.

The meeting, held on the sidelines of the Antalya Diplomatic Forum, was the first high-level talks between Moscow and Kiev since Russia launched a special military operation in Ukraine on Feb 24.

During the meeting, the two sides failed to make progress on a ceasefire but agreed to continue negotiations over the conflict.

MOSCOW - Russian and Ukrainian delegations will hold a new round of face-to-face negotiations on March 29-30, head of Russia's negotiation team Vladimir Medinsky said on Sunday.

"Today, another round of negotiations with Ukraine via video link took place. As a result, it was decided to meet in person on March 29-30," Medinsky, also an aide to the Russian president, said on Telegram.

Meanwhile, David Arakhamia, a member of the Ukrainian delegation said Sunday that the next live round will be held in Turkey on March 28-30.

Since Feb 28, Russia and Ukraine have held three rounds of face-to-face peace talks and then a series of online discussions, failing to reach a major agreement.

The new round of talks will take place after the Russian military announced on Friday that the main tasks of the first stage of Russia's special military operation in Ukraine had been completed in general.

The Kremlin hit back at United States President Joe Biden's remark during a speech on Saturday that Russian leader Vladimir Putin "cannot remain in power", saying that's not up to Biden because Russia's presidents "are elected by Russians".

Biden made his comment castigating his Russian counterpart during a visit to the Royal Castle in Polish capital of Warsaw after meeting with top Ukrainian ministers.

He participated in intensive NATO, G7 and the European Council summits during his visit to Europe, with the Ukraine crisis as the major focus.

Biden tried to coax a display of unity with European partners, but failed to talk them into concerted actions against Russia.

In his speech, Biden plainly warned Russia not to "think about moving on one single inch of NATO territory", while bluntly calling the Russian president "a butcher".

Biden coupled his harsh words for Putin with a pointed attempt to appeal to ordinary Russians, saying they were "not our enemy" and urging them to blame their president for the heavy sanctions imposed by the West.

Although the White House moved quickly to temper Biden's unprecedented comment on Putin, insisting that the US leader is not seeking "regime change" in Russia and was referring to Putin's influence over neighbors in the region, the Kremlin made its displeasure clear.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said it is not for Biden to decide who should be in power in Russia.

"A state leader should control his temper," Peskov said.

"And, of course, each time such personal insults are uttered, they narrow the window of opportunity for our bilateral relations under the current US administration. It is necessary to be aware of this," Peskov stressed.

Biden met with Ukraine's Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba and Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov earlier on Saturday.

He offered reassurance to Ukrainians at a time when nearly 4 million of them have been driven out of their country.

In a tweet, Kuleba said that the meeting allowed him to seek "practical decisions in both political and defense spheres in order to fortify Ukraine's ability to fight back", while Reznikov tweeted that he felt "cautious optimism".

However, in a possible shift on a plan to transfer Soviet-era fighter jets from Poland to Kyiv to boost Ukraine's firepower in the skies－rejected last month by the Pentagon as too "high risk"－Kuleba said that the United States now did not object.

Biden made clear that the West would need to steel itself for what will be a long and difficult battle.

He cast doubt on Russia's signal that it may scale down its war aims to concentrate on eastern Ukraine, even as two Russian missile strikes had hit a fuel depot in Ukraine's Lviv, a rare attack on a city just 70 kilometers from the Polish border.

Russian Defence Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said on Saturday that Russian Armed Forces destroyed four Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicles in the past day, including a drone that was flying over the Black Sea toward Sevastopol.

According to Konashenkov, Russia's air defenses also downed a Ukrainian military Mi-24 helicopter over the Staraya Basan settlement, which is 60 km east of Kyiv.

Agencies contributed to this story.