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Sanctions, aid and ceasefire hopes on 16 March 2022
Summary
A look back at a day when Washington announced new military assistance, Moscow signalled hope of compromise, and Vladimir Putin turned on internal critics.
What did diplomacy, aid and domestic politics look like in the third week of the war? On 16 March 2022, the picture was mixed: Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said there was hope of reaching a compromise aimed at a ceasefire, while US President Joe Biden announced a further $800 million in security assistance for Ukraine.
Washington adds weapons
The new US package included 800 anti-aircraft systems, thousands of anti-tank missiles and armed combat drones, all intended to counter Russia's invasion. It followed a step taken a day earlier, on 15 March, when Biden signed a $1.5 trillion budget bill that included $13.6 billion in aid for Ukraine.
Also on 15 March, the US Senate unanimously passed a bipartisan resolution declaring Russian President Vladimir Putin a war criminal and calling for the International Criminal Court to investigate him. The same day, the United States imposed additional sanctions on Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko.
Moscow's two messages
Lavrov's remark on a possible compromise pointed to a ceasefire as the goal. Putin's message to his ministers on 16 March was of a different kind. Addressing them on the situation in Ukraine and the Russian economy, he described Russian "traitors" as "scum" and accused a so-called "fifth column" of trying to destroy the country from within.
Russia had also been widening its own sanctions list. On 15 March it sanctioned Biden, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, CIA Director William Burns and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, in response to US sanctions on Russian officials. Moscow likewise sanctioned Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly, General Wayne Eyre and most members of the Canadian parliament, all of whom were banned from entering Russia.
Kyiv: visitors and concessions
On 15 March the prime ministers of Poland, Slovenia and the Czech Republic travelled to Kyiv by train. They met Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal to demonstrate the European Union's "unequivocal support" for Ukraine's sovereignty and independence.
The same day, Zelenskyy acknowledged that Ukraine would not be able to join NATO. In Ukraine's parliament, the Verkhovna Rada, Illia Kyva of the pro-Russian Opposition Platform — For Life was deprived of his MP status, and a further four MPs quit the party.
A regional aside
Elsewhere in the region, on 14 March Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan asked the OSCE Minsk Group to help start peace talks with Azerbaijan, aiming to normalise relations after their conflict.
What the day showed
Taken together, the reports from 14 to 16 March show military and financial support for Ukraine growing, sanctions being exchanged between Moscow and Western capitals, and a Russian leadership that spoke of a possible compromise while directing sharp rhetoric at critics at home.
