Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy agreed to start peace talks with Russia, his office said Sunday.

Following a phone call with Belarusian strongman Alexander Lukashenko, Zelenskyy's office said he had agreed to send a delegation to a meeting on the Belarusian-Ukrianian border near the Pripyat river.

The talks would be the first to take place since Russia invaded Ukraine. His office said the talks would be held without preconditions.

"We agreed that the Ukrainian delegation would meet with the Russian delegation without preconditions on the Ukrainian-Belarusian border, near the Pripyat River," Zelenskyy said in a statement.

Russian nuclear deterrence on high alert
Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered that Russia's nuclear deterrence forces be put on high alert.

"I order the defence minister and the chief of the general staff of the Russian armed forces to put the deterrence forces of the Russian army into a special mode of combat service," Putin said in a televised address.

The move comes following a wave of sanctions over Russia's invasion of Ukraine that look set to cripple the Russian economy.

it'll all turn out fine in the end... unless it all turns to toast.

_{It is rightly acknowledged that people of faith have no monopoly of virtue - Queen Elizabeth II}