Why did 1 March 2022 matter diplomatically?

What did diplomacy look like on 1 March 2022, the sixth day of Russia's invasion of Ukraine? The reports from that day and the days just before it show a political track moving alongside the war: a bid for European Union membership, a search for mediators, and a widening circle of states willing to act against Russia.

A membership bid moves quickly

On 28 February 2022, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy signed an application for Ukraine to join the European Union. The same day, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said that Ukraine should eventually join the EU, calling it one of the bloc's own and saying the EU wanted to see it in the European family. On 1 March 2022, the European Parliament formally accepted Ukraine's application.

The sequence matters. Within about a day of the signature, one EU institution had said it wanted Ukraine in the bloc and another had formally accepted the application.

Talks and mediators

On 28 February 2022, presidential advisor Mykhailo Podolyak announced that peace talks had begun. Ukraine used them to call for a ceasefire. On 1 March 2022, Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba asked China to help mediate a ceasefire. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi responded that China was ready to help Russia and Ukraine reach an agreement and mediate a ceasefire. China had also expressed regret over the conflict.

There was a further channel. The office of French President Emmanuel Macron said that, in a phone call on 28 February 2022, Russia's president confirmed a willingness to make commitments to stop attacks on civilians and civilian infrastructure and to secure major roadways.

Weapons and sanctions widen

The military side of the picture also involved third countries. On 28 February 2022, Sweden's Prime Minister, Magdalena Andersson, announced that her country would send military equipment, including anti-tank launchers, to Ukraine. That broke with a doctrine of not sending arms to countries engaged in active conflict.

The same day, Ukrainian Air Force pilots began arriving in Poland to take control of fighter aircraft donated by EU countries. The Ukrainian government said the EU was handing over 70 fighter jets, including 28 MiG-29s from Poland, 12 from Slovakia, 16 from Bulgaria and 14 Sukhoi Su-25s from Bulgaria. The account was contested: Bulgarian Prime Minister Kiril Petkov said he had rejected the request. EU security chief Josep Borrell later clarified that donations were made bilaterally by individual member states, not by the EU itself.

On sanctions, Andorra's Prime Minister, Xavier Espot, announced on 1 March 2022 that he would send urgent legislation to parliament the following Wednesday, so the General Council could approve a framework for economic sanctions on Russia. The law would freeze the bank assets of 700 people and 50 companies that the EU considers linked to the invasion. It would be the first time in Andorra's history that sanctions had been applied to a foreign country.

Contested claims on the ground

Two security reports from 1 March 2022 showed how much remained disputed. A senior Ukrainian territorial defence official said Belarusian Ground Forces units had entered northern Chernihiv Oblast. The Ukrainian presidential office said there was no evidence of this. Belarus had previously said it would not send its armed forces to Ukraine.

Separately, according to Ukrainian intelligence information, Ukrainian forces foiled an assassination plot against Zelenskyy by killing a group of Chechen paramilitaries known as Kadyrovtsy, who had been trying to enter Kyiv on 26 February 2022.

What the day shows

Taken together, the reports describe a state under attack pursuing several political tracks at once. It sought institutional closeness to Europe, asked a major power to mediate, and drew arms and sanctions from governments that had previously held back. The gap between the Ukrainian and EU accounts of the jet transfers, and between Kyiv's presidential office and a territorial defence official on Belarus, also shows how uncertain the information environment was in the first week of the invasion.