KYIV: Ukraine vowed not to give ground at talks with Moscow as Ukrainian forces resisted a Russian invasion four days in and Moscow put its nuclear forces on high alert.
Fighting has claimed dozens of civilian lives, forced hundreds and thousands of Ukrainians to flee west and could, according to the EU, eventually displace up to seven million people.
Russia has become an international pariah as its forces do battle on the streets of Ukraine’s cities, facing a barrage of sanctions including a ban from Western airspace and key financial networks.
Ukraine said it had agreed to send a delegation to meet Russian representatives on the border with Belarus, which has allowed Russian troops passage to attack Ukraine.
But Kyiv insisted there were no pre-conditions to the talks.
“We will not capitulate, we will not give up a single inch of our territory,” Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said ahead of the first public contact between the two sides since war erupted.
Ukraine s President Volodymyr Zelensky was sceptical.
“As always: I do not really believe in the outcome of this meeting, but let them try,” he said.
Ukrainian forces said they had defeated a Russian incursion into Ukraine s second city Kharkiv, 500 kilometres (310 miles) east of Kyiv, on day four of an invasion that stunned the world.
As Western countries lined up to send arms to Ukraine and impose suffocating sanctions, Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered Russia s nuclear “deterrence forces” onto high alert.
The United States, the world s second largest nuclear power, slammed Putin s order as “totally unacceptable” while Kuleba said the move would not break his country s resolve.
Germany said Putin s nuclear manoeuvring was because the offensive had “halted” and was not going to plan.
The UN General Assembly will hold a rare emergency session Monday to discuss the conflict.
Ukraine has reported 198 civilian deaths, including three children, since the invasion began and Russia acknowledged for the first time that a number of its forces had been killed or injured.
Read more: World left Ukraine alone to fight with Russia: President Zelensky
