Moscow
knows that Ukraine's recognition of Crimea's annexation is the only way
of persuading nations around the world to follow suit by accepting that
Crimea is now part of Russia.
But
the Russians are also demanding that, in exchange for stopping their
military offensive, Ukraine recognises the two Russian-speaking
separatist enclaves on its territory as independent states, and formally
includes a provision in the Constitution forbidding the country from
joining Nato, the US-led military alliance in Europe.
Unsurprisingly, Ukraine rejected all these demands out of hand.
However, over the past few days, the Russian position underwent some subtle changes.
Officials in Moscow stopped talking about the need to remove alleged "fascists" or "Nazis" from the Ukrainian government.
Instead,
state-controlled media in Russia started speculating about the
possibility of a face-to-face meeting between Russian President Vladimir
Putin and his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky.
This
was rightly interpreted as a hint that "regime change" in the Ukrainian
capital of Kyiv is no longer Russia's main objective.
And
Mr Zelensky responded that he stands ready to meet Mr Putin; while
admitting that such a meeting represents for Ukraine "a hard path", Mr
Zelensky also pointed out that "this path is needed".
Still, the diplomatic road ahead is strewn with serious obstacles.
After
the bloodshed of the past three weeks, it is difficult to see any
Ukrainian politician accepting the formal loss of Crimea or of the
separatist enclaves, in themselves significant parts of territory in
eastern Ukraine.
But
without this formal Ukrainian acceptance, Mr Putin will not have an
opportunity to claim that the war he started ended in a victory.
And he is not famous for admitting that he is ever wrong, let alone for accepting a military defeat.
Nor
is there any meeting of minds between Ukraine and Russia about the
sequence of measures to be taken in order to end this war.
The
Ukrainians are determined not to agree to a ceasefire unless they also
have an agreement about the withdrawal of all Russian forces from their
territory.
But
Moscow claims that negotiating a ceasefire should be a separate matter
from discussions about the future deployment of Russian troops on
Ukraine's soil, something Kyiv finds intolerable.