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Talks, sanctions and signals on 12 March 2022
Summary
A look back at how diplomacy and economic pressure ran in parallel in the days around 12 March 2022, the seventeenth day of the invasion.
What did Ukraine and Russia want from diplomacy by 12 March 2022? The reports from that day and the days before it show both sides talking about talks, while sanctions and information controls tightened around the war.
On 12 March 2022, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said ceasefire negotiations between Russia and Ukraine should be held in Jerusalem. He added that Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett could have a positive impact on them. It was a proposal about venue and mediator, made while no ceasefire existed.
The foreign ministers meet
The backdrop was a meeting on 10 March 2022 in Ankara, Turkey, between Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba. These were the highest-level talks between the two countries since the invasion began. No ceasefire was reached, but the possibility of a meeting between Zelenskyy and Russian President Vladimir Putin was discussed.
The next day, 11 March, both capitals spoke on that point. Igor Zhovkva, deputy head of the Office of the President of Ukraine, said Zelenskyy was ready to talk to Putin whenever Putin was ready. Kremlin Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov said Putin was open to meeting Zelenskyy. Putin, meeting Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, spoke of positive shifts and progress in the talks with Ukraine.
Markets responded to that language. Stock prices rose in the United States and other global markets after Putin's remarks, and the Dow gained 300 points.
Pressure through sanctions
Diplomacy did not replace economic pressure. On 11 March, US President Joe Biden announced he would revoke Russia's most favoured nation trade status, in coordination with the European Union and the Group of Seven. The United States would also ban imports of Russian seafood, alcohol and diamonds, forbid new investment in Russia by American citizens, and criminalise the export of US banknotes to Russia.
Putin had acknowledged on 10 March that sanctions had created problems for Russia. He called them illegitimate and warned the West that Russia would emerge stronger and solve those problems. Together, the two statements show a Russian leadership conceding costs in public while rejecting the premise of the measures.
Ukraine was using economic tools of its own. On 10 March, its parliament began debating a law that would allow forced seizure of all assets belonging to Russian citizens, as well as Ukrainians deemed by the courts or the National Security and Defense Council to be Russian collaborators. A bill approved the previous week had already allowed seizure of assets owned by the Russian government and Russian companies.
Information space and manpower
The fight over speech also widened. On 10 March, Facebook and Instagram began allowing users in Eastern Europe, the Baltics and the Caucasus to promote violence against Russians and Russian soldiers in the context of the war, according to internal emails. A Meta spokesperson described this as a temporary allowance for political expression that would normally break its rules, such as 'death to the Russian invaders'. Calls for violence against Russian prisoners of war and credible calls for violence against Russian civilians stayed prohibited. Death threats against Putin and Lukashenko were permitted, and a narrow exception was made for praise of the Azov Regiment strictly in the context of defending Ukraine.
On 11 March, Russia blocked access to Instagram, citing Meta's permission of calls to violence against Russian soldiers and death threats against Putin.
Russia also moved on personnel. On 11 March, it allowed foreign volunteers to join its armed forces to fight in Ukraine. Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu said he had received around 16,000 applications, mostly from people in the Middle East.
What the pattern showed
Taken together, the reports describe a conflict being pursued on several tracks at once. Both presidents' representatives said a leaders' meeting was possible, yet no ceasefire had been agreed. Washington, working with the EU and the G7, was widening trade restrictions. Kyiv was building legal tools to seize assets, and Moscow was restricting a major social platform and recruiting abroad.
Zelenskyy's call for Jerusalem as a venue, made on 12 March 2022, added one more element: a search for a mediator and a location, even as the stated willingness to meet coexisted with an unchanged battlefield and no truce.
