Moscow: Russia is ready to send a delegation to the Belarusian capital Minsk for peace talks with Ukrainian officials, the Kremlin said on Friday. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky had twice made the offer to conduct talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Zelensky had made an initial proposal of talks in a speech addressed to Putin late on Wednesday, shortly before the Russian invasion.

He said at the time: “Ukraine’s security is linked to the security of its neighbours. That is why today we have to talk about security in the whole of Europe. That is our main goal — peace in Ukraine and the security of our citizens. For this we are ready to talk to everyone,including you. In different formats and in any place.”

Kyiv has floated the idea of that Ukraine could promise to take a neutral status on Nato membership in order to end the violence.

“In response to Zelensky’s proposal, Vladimir Putin is ready to send a delegation at the level of representatives of Defence Ministry,Foreign Ministry and presidential administration to Minsk for negotiations with the Ukrainian delegation,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said. According to the Kremlin, Belarusian ruler Alexander Lukashenko is ready to create the conditions for a meeting between Russian and Ukrainian delegations. Meanwhile, more than 50,000 people have fled Ukraine since the start of the Russian invasion, the United Nations refugee chief said on Friday.

“More than 50,000 Ukrainian refugees have fled their country in less than 48 hours — a majority to Poland and Moldova,” Filippo Grandi said in a tweet, cautioning that “many more are moving towards its borders.”

Russian missiles pounded Kyiv on Friday, families cowered in shelters and authorities told residents to prepare Molotov cocktails to defend Ukraine’s capital as fighting was reported in the outskirts of the city.

Moscow said it had captured the Hostomel airfield northwest of the capital — a vital staging post for an assault on Kyiv that has been fought over since Russian paratroopers landed there in the first hours of the war.