The foreign ministers of Russia and Ukraine met on Thursday in Turkey, the highest level contact between the two countries since the war began on Feb. 24, but in simultaneous duelling news conferences made clear they had made no progress.

Ukraine's Dmytro Kuleba said he had secured no promise from Russia's Sergei Lavrov to halt firing so aid could reach civilians, including Kyiv's main humanitarian priority - evacuating hundreds of thousands of people trapped in the besieged port of Mariupol.

Lavrov showed no sign of making any concessions, repeating Russian demands that Ukraine be disarmed and accept neutral status. He said Kyiv appeared to want meetings for the sake of meetings, and blamed the West for intensifying the conflict by arming its neighbour.

Officials from both countries confirmed on March 10 that the meeting had begun in the Turkish resort city of Antalya, 15 days into the war.

Russia's war in Ukraine entered the third week on Thursday with none of its stated objectives reached, despite thousands of people killed, more than two million made refugees and thousands cowering in besieged cities under relentless bombardment.

The foreign ministers of Russia and Ukraine met on Thursday in Turkey, the highest level contact between the two countries since the war began on Feb. 24.

Ukraine's Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said on the eve of his talks with Russia's Sergei Lavrov that his expectations were low. Russian negotiator Leonid Slutsky said Moscow "will not concede a single negotiating point".

Previous talks have focused mainly on creating limited local ceasefires to reach civilians in besieged cities, especially Mariupol, a southern port where hundreds of thousands of people have been trapped with no access to water, medicine or food in conditions the Red Cross has called "apocalyptic".

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu is also participating in the talks that he has said are aimed at taking a step toward a meeting between the Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy.