By Ashis Ray

London, Mar 9 (IANS): The foreign ministers of Russia and Ukraine Sergey Lavrov and Dmitry Kuleba respectively are expected to meet on the sidelines of a multilateral conference in Antalya, Turkey on Thursday March 10, according to Russian radio station Sputnik, who quoted its country's foreign ministry spokesperson.

The meeting will be trilateral with the Turkish Foreign Minister participating in the peace talks.

Russia and Ukraine are at war after a Russian invasion of its neighbour two weeks ago, which Moscow describes as 'special operations'.

The news of the foreign ministers' meeting was received cautiously, given the current state of hostilities. However, with the Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy virtually stating his country will not join the western military alliance North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) - a major issue with the Kremlin - there is a glimmer of hope that there is light at the end of the tunnel.

Zelenskiy told the United States' TV news service ABC News: "I have cooled down regarding this question a long time ago after we understood that NATO is not prepared to accept (Ukraine's membership)". He added: "The alliance (NATO) is afraid of controversial things, and confrontation with Russia."

The US, meanwhile, refused to supply Air Force planes to Poland, which is a NATO member country, to be passed on to Ukraine to defend itself against the Russians.