Talks in Turkey today between the foreign ministers of Russia and Ukraine — the most high-level interaction since the war began — show clearly there is still just one decision maker in Moscow on what happens now. That’s Vladimir Putin.
Speaking after the 1.5 hour meeting, Dmytro Kuleba said he pressed Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov to agree to a humanitarian corridor to let people leave the besieged eastern city of Mariupol, where a maternity hospital was shelled yesterday. Lavrov, he said, told him he’d take that back to Moscow rather than making any promises.
“The broad narrative he conveyed to me is that they will continue their aggression until Ukraine meets their demands, and the least of these demands is surrender,” Kuleba told reporters.
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Lavrov in turn said Moscow wanted “serious” talks with Ukraine, but in Belarus, which borders both countries and is a Russian ally that provided a staging post for troops to invade Ukraine.
Ukraine has said throughout it’s willing to talk, but if getting progress even on a temporary pause in fighting is this difficult, a full deescalation looks even harder.
Putin clearly intends to link everything to his overall demands being met. They have been, variously, the full demilitarization of Ukraine, the removal of the government there, Ukraine’s recognition of separatist territories as independent and it agreeing to “neutrality.”
Areas of Russian occupied Ukrainian territory and locations of reported attacks.
Sources: Bloomberg, Institute for the Study of War with AEI’s Critical Threats Project
Kyiv has said it will not cede any territory. It is asking for even more backing from NATO in terms of weapons, a no-fly zone (which NATO won’t support) and European Union membership. Which is the opposite of ... neutral.
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr
Zelenskiy has repeatedly called for a direct meeting with Putin, saying
only the two leaders can halt the war. And in that regard he might be
right.
The problem is, Putin shows no great interest in doing so. — Rosalind Mathieson