2nd round of Russia-Ukraine peace talks could happen on Belarus-Poland border

Yury Voskresensky, a Belarusian political scholar who is close with the Russia-Ukraine talks, said one of the possible venues for the coming talks is a villa eight kilometres from the Polish border.

Preliminarily scheduled for Wednesday, the negotiation is likely to see two more participants from the Ukrainian delegation, said the source.

"The second round of Russia-Ukraine talks is expected to be held tomorrow [Wednesday] on the Belarus-Poland border. The Ukrainian and Russian delegations will set out for the negotiations tonight and tomorrow morning. There could be changes in the membership of the Ukrainian delegation. It's possible to include members of the Verkhovna Rada [Ukraine's Parliament] who didn't attend the first round of talks," said Voskresensky.

Voskresensky said the Belarusian side applauds the first talks that concluded Monday in Belarus.

"The five-hour negotiations [held on Monday] received positive comments from Belarus. Belarusian president commended the two delegations at today's meeting of the extended Security Council," he said.

The Belarusian scholar noted that one party involved in the negations is at the mercy of western countries.

"It seems to me that one of the parties concerned is manipulated by a 'third party' - the West. Instead of exerting influence on Ukraine to stop the conflict, [the West] started offering weapons to Ukraine. The position they take is quite perplexing," he said.

The first round of the negotiations, which lasted about five hours, concluded on Monday in Belarus' Gomel region, with no clear breakthrough.