Ukraine’s counter-attack
Russia pledged to “drastically reduce” military activity around Kyiv and its regions this week, claiming that the early goals of its “military operation” had largely been achieved and that it would now focus on “liberating” the Donbas region. On Tuesday, peace negotiations resumed in Turkey. Ukrainian delegates were advised not to eat or drink at the talks – following unsubstantiated reports that two Ukrainians had been poisoned at earlier talks in Kyiv, along with
Roman Abramovich, who had attended as an unofficial mediator. Ukraine’s President Zelensky, warned that while negotiators were “hearing positive signals from the negotiating table”, words would not “silence the explosions of Russian bombs”.
The Kremlin’s pivot came after days of successful counterattacks by Ukrainian troops in the north and east of the country. Towns lost in the first month of the war, including the Kyiv suburb of Irpin, were recaptured, and Ukrainian units claimed to have routed Russia’s fabled 4th division. However, Russia intensified its assault on the separatist Luhansk and Donetsk regions and Mariupol was reportedly close to falling.
What the editorials said
As has become “harrowingly clear” in recent weeks, Russia is more than capable of using its artillery “to inflict death and suffering on Ukrainian civilians”, said The Times. In fact it’s now clear that Vladimir Putin’s army can do “precious little else”. Russia’s president cannot afford “to be seen to lose”, said The Guardian, but his war has “made real what he most feared: a Ukraine that is proudly distinct from Russia”.
Russia’s change of strategy owes more to the damage inflicted on its military than to “the search for a peaceful settlement”, said The Daily Telegraph. Moscow now seems to have “confined its territorial demands” to the Donbas region and the Crimean peninsula; and it will also insist on a yet-to-be-defined “demilitarisation” of Ukraine. Although European countries may urge Zelensky to agree to Putin’s demands, this is for Ukrainians to decide, and the West must support them “whatever conclusion they reach”. Moscow’s announcement of a new phase in the war “could be a ruse”, said The Economist. Russian forces now seem to be encircling the Ukrainians’ Joint Forces Operation, the troops fighting around Donbas. “If the manoeuvre works” – and it is far from clear that it will – it’ll be a major blow.