Talks between Ukrainian foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba and his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov have begun, a spokesperson for Ukraine's foreign ministry has said.

The talks are taking place in Antalya, Turkey, with Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Oleg Nikolenko tweeting a photo of the diplomats meeting at the Antalya Diplomacy Forum.

Kuleba has previously said he does not have "high hopes" for the meeting, but he said he would push for the "maximum" in bringing an end to Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

An attack on a children's hospital in the southern port city of Mariupol on Wednesday killed at least three people, including one child, city council officials said.

In a Telegram post, Mariupol's city council said that the attack had killed a young girl, in addition to injuring at least 17 others, including children, mothers and doctors.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has condemned the strike and similar attacks in other cities as evidence of a "genocide" being carried out by Russian forces. 

“Europeans: You won't be able to say that you did not see what was happening to Ukrainians, what was happening in Mariupol,” he said. “You saw it. You know it. You need to continue to impose sanctions on Russia so that they would not be able to continue this genocide, so that they would sit at the negotiation table and stop this atrocious war."

Russian forces situated northwest of Kyiv have made little recent progress, the U.K. defense ministry said Thursday.

“The large Russian column north west of Kyiv has made little progress in over a week and is suffering continued losses at the hands of the Ukrainian Armed Forces,” said the ministry in a tweet.

The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said the city’s defense is inflicting “fire damage on the offensive group of occupiers” and is maintaining defensive lines.

"Measures are being taken to deter the enemy from advancing in the direction of Kyiv,” it said in a statement on Facebook on Thursday morning.