Lviv – In a compassionate and encouraging visit, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky visited wounded soldiers recovering at a military hospital.

Zelenskiy chatted to the injured troops, posed for selfies with them and awarded them and hospital workers with medals.

Fresh round of talks
Hopes loom large on a new round of talks between Russia and Ukraine to be held on Monday via video link. The talks are scheduled to start at 10:30 am Kyiv time (0830 GMT), Anton Gerashchenko, adviser to Ukraine's interior minister, said on Monday morning.

Neither side has said what would be covered during the talks. Three rounds of talks between the two sides in Belarus, most recently last Monday, had focused mainly on humanitarian issues.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said the countries' delegations have been speaking daily by video link and a clear aim of his negotiators was to "do everything" to arrange for him to meet Putin.

Ukrainian and Russian negotiators scheduled Monday’s talks citing progress, even after Russia attacked Yavoriv International Centre for Peacekeeping and Security, a base near the Polish border and fighting raged elsewhere.

In many cities and regions of Ukraine, including Kyiv, Lviv, Odessa, Ivano-Frankivsk and Cherkasy, air raid sirens sounded before dawn.

A barrage of Russian missiles hit Ukraine's Yavoriv International Centre for Peacekeeping and Security, a base just 15 miles (25 km) from the Polish border that has previously hosted NATO military instructors, killing 35 people and wounding 134, a Ukrainian official said on Sunday.

Thousands of people have died since Feb 24, when Russian President Vladimir Putin launched a ‘special military operation’ to rid Ukraine of dangerous nationalists and Nazis.

Moscow has repeatedly denied targeting civilians. Ukraine has been blamed for failed attempts to evacuate civilians from encircled cities, an accusation Ukraine and its Western allies strongly reject.

In a telephone call, U.S. President Joe Biden and France's Emmanuel Macron emphasised on their commitment to holding Russia accountable for the invasion, the White House said.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and his Ukrainian counterpart, Dmytro Kuleba, also discussed diplomatic efforts to stop Russia's invasion, the State Department said.

Global financial markets, battered by fears the conflict could spread and drag in NATO, rallied on hopes for progress in peace talks. Stocks rose while oil prices gave up some of their massive recent gains.
-Reuters/BBC