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Diplomacy and concessions on 8 March 2022
Summary
A look back at a day when Kyiv signalled flexibility on NATO and the separatist regions as mediation efforts multiplied.
What did Kyiv signal about its position on 8 March 2022, and why did it matter for the diplomacy then taking shape? In an interview with ABC News, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Ukraine was open to discussions about the Russia-recognised separatist regions of Donetsk and Luhansk in eastern Ukraine. He also conceded that his country might no longer be ready to be accepted into NATO.
A crowded mediation track
The remarks came as several governments were trying to open channels. On 6 March, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan called on Russian President Vladimir Putin to declare a ceasefire. Putin told him he was ready for dialogue, but warned that any attempt to draw out negotiations could fail. He also called on Ukraine to cease fighting for the military campaign to end.
The same day, Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said his country would try to mediate a ceasefire even if the attempts did not succeed. In a phone call with French President Emmanuel Macron, Putin said Russia would no longer attack nuclear power plants and was open to a trilateral meeting between Russia, Ukraine and the International Atomic Energy Agency.
On 7 March it was announced that Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba would meet Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu in Ankara on Thursday. It would be the first Cabinet-level meeting between Russia and Ukraine since the invasion began.
War continuing alongside talks
Fighting did not pause for diplomacy. On 6 March Zelenskyy said that Havryshivka Vinnytsia International Airport in Vinnytsia Oblast had been completely destroyed after being hit by eight Russian ballistic missiles.
NATO's flank
On 7 March, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán signed a decree allowing NATO troops to be deployed in western Hungary and lethal weapons to be transferred across its territory to other NATO member states. The decree did not permit weapons shipments across Hungarian territory to Ukraine.
What the day showed
Taken together, the reports from 6 to 8 March show two parallel tracks: a widening set of intermediaries and a planned ministerial meeting, and public statements from Zelenskyy touching on two of the issues at the centre of the dispute, the status of the separatist regions and NATO membership. Putin's conditions, as relayed after his call with Erdoğan, were that Ukraine stop fighting and that talks not be drawn out. The Ankara meeting, scheduled for the Thursday after the covered date, was the next concrete test of whether those positions could be brought together.
