INTERNATIONAL: Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov met his Ukrainian counterpart Dmytro Kuleba in Turkey on Thursday.

"The meeting has started," Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has told reporters.

The meeting was brokered by Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu.

The summit markS the first high-level talks between two countries since the invasion.

Russia's invasion has uprooted more than 2 million people in what the United Nations calls the fastest humanitarian crisis in Europe since World War Two.

NATO member Turkey had repeatedly offered to mediate between the sides and will host their top two diplomats after weeks of mediation attempts by world powers.

Moscow has said it is ready for talks with Ukraine, but that all of its demands , including that Kyiv takes a neutral position and drops aspirations of joining the NATO alliance must be met to end its assault.

Delegations from the two countries have held three rounds of talks previously, two in Belarus and one in Ukraine. Despite some positive signs on humanitarian arrangements, those negotiations have had little impact.