MOSCOW

Russian President Vladimir Putin announced "positive shifts" in the Russia-Ukraine peace talks at a meeting with his Belarusian counterpart Alexander Lukashenko in Moscow on Friday.

"I will inform you about the situation in Ukraine, first of all about how the talks are going on, which are being held now almost on the daily basis. There are some positive shifts there as the negotiators from our side reported to me, I will tell you all this in detail," Putin said.

He admitted that Russia is experiencing problems connected to economic sanctions, adding that attempts have always been taken to deter Russia's development, which are now done at a large scale.

"I am sure we will go through these difficulties, will get more competencies, more possibilities to feel independent, autonomous. In the end, it will be for the good as it was in previous years," he said.

For his part, Lukashenko claimed that if Russia had not struck "a preemptive strike," Kyiv would have attacked the Russian-Belarusian troops that were holding military exercises.

"They were going not only to attack Donbas, but also took a position to attack Belarus," Lukashenko said.

According to Lukashenko, the foreign mercenaries are moving along the Belarusian border to the Chernobyl zone to strike the Russian troops in the back, to attack the Russian-Belarusian troops to distract them from the western borders, and to implement some plans in Chernobyl that are at the moment unclear but do not promise any good.

Lukashenko resented the actions by the Ukrainian military in the Chernobyl zone, saying the destruction of the power lines that are supplying the Chernobyl nuclear power plant could have led to a nuclear catastrophe.

He called the Western sanctions "swinish," stressing that they are also "illegitimate" and "unilateral."

Lukashenko suggested summoning the members of the Collective Security Organization Treaty to discuss a joint response to Western sanctions for the sense of strengthening cooperation with each other.

Russia’s war on Ukraine, which began on Feb. 24, has drawn international condemnation, led to financial sanctions on Moscow, and spurred an exodus of global firms from Russia. The West has also imposed biting export restrictions on key technologies that are now prohibited from being sent to Russia.

At least 564 civilians have been killed and 957 others injured in Ukraine since the beginning of the war, the UN has said, while also cautioning that conditions on the ground make it difficult to verify the true number.

Over 2.5 million people have fled to neighboring countries, with about 2 million more estimated to be displaced inside Ukraine, according to the UN refugee agency.