Russia and Ukraine both emphasised newfound scope for compromise on Wednesday as peace talks were set to resume three weeks into a Russian assault that has so far failed to topple the Ukrainian government by force.
Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky said the talks were becoming "more realistic", while Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said there was "some hope for compromise", with neutral status for Ukraine - a major Russian demand - now on the table, reports Reuters.
Three weeks into the invasion, Russian troops have been halted at the gates of Kyiv, having taken heavy losses and failed to seize any of Ukraine's biggest cities in a war Western officials say Moscow thought it would win within days.
Ukrainian officials have expressed hope this week that Moscow was coming to terms with its failure to topple the Kyiv government and its lack of fresh troops to keep fighting.
Talks were due to resume on Wednesday by video link for what would be a third straight day, the first time they have lasted more than a single day, which both sides have suggested means they have entered a more serious phase.
"The meetings continue, and, I am informed, the positions during the negotiations already sound more realistic. But time is still needed for the decisions to be in the interests of Ukraine," Zelensky said in a video address overnight.
On Tuesday, Zelenskiy had hinted at a possible route for a compromise, suggesting Ukraine would be willing to accept international security guarantees that stopped short of its longstanding hope for full admission to the NATO alliance.
Keeping Ukraine out of NATO was long one of Russia's main demands in the months before it launched what it calls a "special operation" to disarm and "denazify" Ukraine.
"The negotiations are not easy for obvious reasons," Lavrov told media outlet RBC news. "But nevertheless, there is some hope of reaching a compromise."
"Neutral status is now being seriously discussed along, of course, with security guarantees," Lavrov said. "Now this very thing is being discussed in negotiations - there are absolutely specific formulations which in my view are close to an agreement."
The head of Ukraine's negotiating team, Zelenskiy's aide Mykhailo Podlolyak, tweeted ahead of Wednesday's resumption of talks that Ukrainian military counteroffensives had "radically changed the parties' dispositions".
In an intelligence assessment released on Wednesday, Britain said Russian forces were trapped on roads, struggling to cope with Ukrainian terrain and suffering from a failure to gain control of the air.
"The tactics of the Ukrainian Armed Forces have adeptly exploited Russia's lack of manoeuvre, frustrating the Russian advance and inflicting heavy losses on the invading forces," said the report.
