Russia Wins More Time With Fruitless Ukraine Talks

ATHENS — Not even the optics were good: While Ukraine dispatched its defense minister and other top officials to the Belarusian border for peace talks with Russia, President Putin sent his adviser on culture to head the Russian delegation — a sure sign that for Russia, at least, the talks were if not an outright trap, then quite possibly something of a ruse. Even if they bore no fruit, the talks did give Russia the ability to claim it was searching for peace even as its troops were carrying out their full-scale assault on Ukraine. While the tireless President Zelensky’s goal of an immediate ceasefire and withdrawal of Russian troops melted against Russia’s insistence on security guarantees and would appear to be keeping the sides oceans apart, both agreed to reconvene in the coming days. Failed talks also give Mr. Putin the gift of time, because in the interval Russian troops can expect key weapons reinforcements as the noose tightens around Kiev. Despite the Russian military’s vast numerical and weaponry advantage — promises of new weapons coming from E.U. countries and now Canada notwithstanding.. Provisioning troops and fortifying supply lines is a tricky business, and every hour counts. More time on the ground also gives the Russians a quantitative edge in their likely objective to join their forces holding Zabrozhia and Mariupol in eastern Ukraine, with a view to blocking Ukrainian positions in the north and west. As the talks along the Belarusian border wrapped up, Russian forces shelled Kharkiv, a major city in northeast Ukraine, and several blasts could be heard in Kiev, where according to satellite imagery a vast convoy of armored vehicles, tanks, artillery and support vehicles was only 17 miles from the city center. The Russian military has offered to allow residents of Kiev, a city of nearly three million, to leave via a safe corridor, though city remains under curfew. Dozens were reported killed in Kharkiv and many more injured.Mr. Putin has made a clear link between ever-tightening sanctions and his decision Sunday to raise Russia’s nuclear posture. He also pointed at “aggressive statements” by NATO, a reference to his long-held stance that the alliance is an existential threat to Russia. On Monday, the Defense Ministry said extra personnel were deployed to bolster Russian nuclear forces, and that the high-alert status applies to all their components: the forces that oversee land-based intercontinental ballistic missiles, submarine-launched intercontinental ballistic missiles, and the fleet of nuclear-capable strategic bombers.The war of rhetoric escalated when Mr. Putin termed the West an “empire of lies,” a barb not lost on anyone who remembers President Reagan’s Cold War characterization of the USSR as an “evil empire.” The European Union, in the meantime, has extended an offer of membership to Ukraine — a move that, given Mr. Putin’s blistering hostility to the West, could be construed as a geopolitical taunt of as yet unknown significance. In another mostly symbolic (for now) move, Turkey has said it will stop warships from making passage through the Turkish Straits to reach the Black Sea — though that body of water is already loaded with Russian warships.What’s next is anybody’s guess. Ukraine is reeling as Russia’s ruble is tanking; refugee numbers are soaring, casualties on both sides are mounting; and the world holds its breath. A Russian news website, Sputnik, quoted Russia’s delegation head in Belarus, Vladimir Medinsky, as saying that a second round of negotiations between the Russian and Ukrainian delegations are to be held on the Polish-Belarusian border in the coming days.

Russia Wins More Time With Fruitless Ukraine Talks

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