Around 1200 GMT on Thursday, Ukraine's Presidential Adviser said that the second round of talks with Russia was set to start "in a couple of hours," as reported by Reuters.

"The Ukrainian delegation is headed to talks with Russia by helicopter," the adviser added.

Market reaction

These comments don't seem to be having a noticeable impact on risk sentiment. As of writing, the Euro Stoxx 600 Index was losing 0.7% on the day and US stock index futures were down between 0.2% and 0.4%.