Venue for Ukraine-Russia talks ready, high-level delegations arriving

The venue for upcoming talks between Russia and Ukraine has been readied and delegations from both sides are arriving at the venue on the Ukrainian-Belarusian border, reports Al Jazeera.

The venue - Pripyat - is a so-called ghost town at the centre of the exclusion zone close to the Chernobyl reactor that was abandoned at the time of the disaster there in 1986.

"The talks will begin as soon as delegations from both sides arrive at the venue," Belarus foreign ministry spokesman Anatoly Glaz said. 

Al Jazeera reporter Jonah Hull said the talks between Kyiv and Moscow are due to begin in about "two hours".

"The delegations we understand, are arriving ... We don't know who makes up these delegations but they are described as fairly high-level, though clearly not leader level," Hull said.

Russia is interested in coming to an agreement that is in the interests of both sides at talks with Ukraine, Russian negotiator Vladimir Medinsky said on Monday.

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said he believes Monday will be a crucial period for Ukraine as fighting continues across the country.

Meanwhile, Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko has issued a threat of deploying nuclear weapons if the West deploys such weapons near the country's borders.

President Vladimir Putin also put Russia's nuclear deterrent on high alert on Sunday in the face of a barrage of Western reprisals for his war on Ukraine, which said it had repelled Russian ground forces attacking its biggest cities.