sorry for double post - this is from the TASS site:

MOSCOW, April 3. /TASS/. A draft of a treaty between Russia and Ukraine is not yet ready "to be presented at the top-level meeting," while Ukraine became more realistic in approaching the issue of its neutral and non-nuclear status, Russian Presidential Aide Vladimir Medinsky who heads the Russian delegation thinks.

"The Ukrainian side became more realistic in approaching the issues related to Ukraine’s neutral and non-nuclear status but the draft of the agreement is not ready to be presented at the top-level meeting," he wrote on his Telegram channel on Sunday.

Commenting on the remarks by David Arakhamia, a member of the Ukrainian delegation, who stated that Russia accepted Ukraine’s stance with the exception of Crimea, he noted that Russia’s point of view with regards to the status of Crimea and Donbass remained unchanged. Medinsky added that Moscow had been trying to achieve Ukraine’s neutral and unaffiliated status as well as security guarantees for it since 2014. He stated that talks between Russia’s and Ukraine’s delegations would continue on Monday while work on the text of the agreement and between the heads of delegations continued in a remote format on Friday and Saturday.

On March 29 in Istanbul, the first face-to-face talks in over three weeks between the delegations of Moscow and Kiev took place. The Russian side assessed the results of this round as "positive progress." Following the talks, Medinsky said that Russia received Ukraine’s written proposals containing provisions on Ukraine’s non-nuclear and unaffiliated status.

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In terms of crimes against humanity ~ in other parts of the world ~

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Israeli forces and Palestinian armed groups carried out attacks during the May 2021 fighting in the Gaza Strip and Israel that violated the laws of war and apparently amount to war crimes, Human Rights Watch said today. The Israeli military and Palestinian authorities have a long track record of failing to investigate laws of war violations committed in or from Gaza.

Human Rights Watch investigated three Israeli strikes that killed 62 Palestinian civilians where there were no evident military targets in the vicinity. Palestinian armed groups also committed unlawful attacks, launching more than 4,360 unguided rockets and mortars toward Israeli population centers, violating the prohibition against deliberate or indiscriminate attacks against civilians. Human Rights Watch will separately release findings on rocket attacks by Palestinian armed groups.

“Israeli forces carried out attacks in Gaza in May that devastated entire families without any apparent military target nearby,” said Gerry Simpson, associate crisis and conflict director at Human Rights Watch. “Israeli authorities’ consistent unwillingness to seriously investigate alleged war crimes, as well as Palestinian forces’ rocket attacks toward Israeli population centers, underscores the importance of the International Criminal Court’s inquiry.”

The United Nations reported that during the May fighting, attacks by the Israeli military killed 260 Palestinians, including at least 129 civilians, of whom 66 were children. The Gaza Health Ministry said Israeli forces injured 1,948 Palestinians, including 610 children. Israeli authorities said that rocket and mortar attacks by Palestinian armed groups resulted in the death of 12 civilians, including two children, one soldier, and injured “several hundred” people. Several Palestinians also died in Gaza when rockets fired by armed groups fell short and landed in Gaza.

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I dont intend to post further on Israel noting its never a safe topic. I merely dumped the above here for context without ascribing blame.

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sorry for the TLDR. also from human rights watch site :

On February 24, 2022 Russia commenced a full-scale military invasion of Ukraine, conducting attacks that have caused civilian deaths and injuries, and damage to civilian buildings, including hospitals, schools, and homes. There have been indiscriminate attacks in violation of the laws of war that may amount to war crimes. By the end of the first week of hostilities, over a million people in Ukraine had fled their homes, many seeking refuge outside Ukraine. The full-scale military assault follows eight years of armed conflict in eastern Ukraine that killed thousands, many of them civilians, displaced 1.5 million people, and had already taken a high toll on civilians in the region, from threatening their physical security to interfering with access to food, medicine, education, and adequate housing. The international armed conflict between Russia and Ukraine is governed by international humanitarian law, including the Geneva Conventions and Protocols, which apply to all parties. All parties to the armed conflict have obligations to distinguish at all times between civilians and combatants, and to take precautions to protect civilians and other non-combatants from the hazards of war.

This post was edited by ferdia on Apr 4 2022 03:15am

I haven't been on active duty for 25 years. When I was on active duty, I still held the right to free speech, but yes, it was limited. I couldn't criticize those in command publicly, whether the country was at war or not.

yes ok, thanks for clarifying.

QFT

I just want to add that if you ask questions (or point out that the conflict simply could have been avoided) they don't only call you conspiracy theorists but call you Putin bootlicker or Russian agent.

If it wasn't so sad I'd laugh about it but I'm literally shaking my head in disbelief.

It's the simplest way to dismiss any criticism on their fragile belief system

Putin ain't nothing but a little corrupt manlet that loves to massacre slavic brothers, sisters and kids.
That bloody man will get what he deserves, eventually.

but he's a genius ?

You’re so closet-gay for trump it’s funny. I supported him and I don’t think about him as much as you do. How sad.

just curious why do people act like the last president we just had shouldnt come up all of the time?

It probably relates to the storming of your capital / Riots as well as whatever else he did during his term of office that pissed a large portion of America off (wall, covid, undermining/degrading political structure etc etc). Ultimately (again, from a neutral standpoint) the narrative I saw from my vantage point was that a portion of America was dead set against him and (in my view and understanding) saw his term of office as a stain on America / stain on their views from the get go. Therefore they want to forget about him as quickly as possible. If any of that summary is wrong, I invite anyone to, briefly, refute.

Its ironic really noting we may not be in the current situation in Ukraine if Trump had been re-elected ( I do accept that prior to Trump, Foreign Policy was blind to whichever party was in power i.e. it didnt really differ). I think you said it a few pages back (correct me now if wrong) that Trump was more keen to use sanctions then troops on the ground. A novel departure from previous foreign policy of sending troops (not to be confused with current events of not sending troops).

This post was edited by ferdia on Apr 4 2022 09:20am