Ukraine War: Russia – Ukraine agree to “Keep Talking” after First Round of Talks Failed, Russia Intensifying Attack but Little Progress

Manas Dasgupta

NEW DELHI, March 1: With the first round of talks between Russia and Ukraine failed to yield any tangible result and ended with an agreement for more talking, Russia looked to be further intensifying its attack on the Ukrainian capital city of Kyiv that kept fighting keeping the all-powerful invaders at bay even on the sixth day of the war on Tuesday.

India conveyed its concern over the worsening situation in the war particularly after one of its innocent medical student lost his life in the Russian shelling of Kharkiv city, the second largest after Kyiv in Ukraine, and gave another call for the two warring nations to return to the negotiation table.

India’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations, ambassador TS Tirumurti told a rare emergency special session of the UN that India was “deeply concerned” over the deteriorating situation in Ukraine and reiterated its call for immediate cessation of violence and end to hostilities, saying all differences can only be bridged through honest, sincere and sustained dialogue. He told the U.N. General Assembly on Ukraine convened on Monday that New Delhi was doing whatever it can to undertake immediate and urgent evacuation efforts of Indian nationals still stranded in Ukraine.

“India is deeply concerned that the situation in Ukraine continues to deteriorate. We reiterate our call for immediate cessation of violence and end to hostilities,” Tirumurti said. “My Government firmly believes that there is no other choice but to return to the path of diplomacy,” he said.

The Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky won a standing ovation from the European Union member countries when he addressed it virtually from Kyiv on Monday night a day after signing a request to join the bloc and urged the EU to prove that it sided with Ukraine in its war with Russia. “The EU is going to be much stronger with us, that’s for sure,” he said.

“Without you, Ukraine is going to be lonesome,” Zelensky told the European Parliament by video link. “We’re fighting for our land and our freedom despite the fact that all our cities are now blocked. Nobody is going to break us, we are strong, we are Ukrainians,” he said.  “Do prove that you are with us. Do prove that you will not let us go. Do prove that you are indeed Europeans and then life will win over death and light will win over darkness. Glory be to Ukraine,” he said.

Following the death of the Indian student, the Indian embassy in Kyiv in an advisory issued on Tuesday asked Indians to leave Kyiv urgently through ‘any means available’. The advisory comes as Moscow strengthened its attack on Ukraine and closed in on the capital, Kyiv, even as the first round of talks aimed at stopping the fighting failed.

Media reports said more than 70 Ukrainian soldiers were killed after Russian artillery hit a military base in Okhtyrka, a city between Kharkiv and Kyiv. This follows Moscow’s shelling of Ukraine’s second-largest city Monday, rocking a residential neighbourhood.

The authorities in Ukraine are warning people to check for symbols on buildings, which could make them targets of the Russians. As the war is intensifying, some symbols have started appearing on the rooftops of high rises and gas pipes in some cities. Some of these symbols include a bright red X (X-marks-the-spot type) and arrows. Ukrainian authorities claim this is the work of “suspicious characters”, who are leaving clues for Russians, presumably for an airstrike. Some reports claim that reflective tags have also been found all around Kyiv.

The city of Kyiv, in a Facebook post last week, appealed to the people with access to roof to “urgently check” for such symbols. “City authorities are appealing to residents of multi-storey buildings that have access to the roof, asking to urgently check the roofs for the availability of tags. In case any marks are detected – please put them to sleep with the ground or something to cover,” it said in the post.

Alexander Tretyak, the mayor of Rivne, a town in western Ukraine, posted a similar message on his official Facebook page. “URGENT ANNOUNCEMENT! I ask the heads of the condominiums to close all attics. If you or a resident of the house notice tags in the driveway, on the roof, next to the houses of unknown persons – inform law enforcement immediately,” he said in the post.

Tirumurti during his address at the UN noted that the prime minister Narendra Modi had advocated strongly for a negotiated settlement of the Russia – Ukraine dispute and said, “We reiterate our firm conviction that all differences can only be bridged through honest, sincere and sustained dialogue.” He said there is an urgent and pressing humanitarian situation developing in Ukraine. “India is doing whatever it can to undertake immediate and urgent evacuation of Indian nationals who are still stranded in Ukraine. The safety and security of Indian nationals, including a large number of students, remains our top priority,” he said.

He noted that the complex and uncertain situation at the border crossings is “adversely impacting” the uninterrupted and predictable movement of people. “This important humanitarian necessity must be immediately addressed,” he said. India thanked all neighbouring countries of Ukraine who have opened their borders for Indian citizens and given all facilities to Indian missions and their personnel to evacuate Indian nationals to their homeland. “We stand ready to help those from our neighbours and developing countries who are also stranded in Ukraine and may seek assistance,” he said.

Ukrainian authorities said more than 70 Ukrainian servicemen were killed by a Russian rocket attack and dozens of civilians have died in “barbaric” shelling. Russian soldiers blew up a government building and Russian artillery attacked several residential areas in Kharkiv. In Kyiv, 352 civilians have been killed, including 14 children, since the invasion began last Thursday, the Ukrainian authorities maintained. More than half a million people have fled Ukraine since the start of Russia’s invasion, UN’s refugee arm said.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has sparked widespread reaction in the sports world, with the country booted out of this year’s Football World Cup and the International Olympic Committee calling for a global sporting ban. The United States expelled 12 Russian diplomats at the United Nations over national security concerns.

Despite tough sanctions announced by the West, Russia showed no sign of stopping the war on Ukraine’s soil where fierce fighting and Russian bombardment have killed dozens and sparked a refugee crisis. Ukraine’s Western allies have increased weapons transfers in support, and Britain has called for such transfers to be expanded. Finland agreed to ship 2,500 assault rifles and 1,500 anti-tank weapons. Canada will supply anti-tank weapons and upgraded ammunition, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said.

EU has disconnected key Russian banks from SWIFT. The union will also ban the transaction of Russia’s Central Bank to “turn off the tap on Russia’s and Putin’s war,” said European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. She said, “In these days, independent Ukraine is facing the darkest hour. At the same time the Ukrainian people are holding up the torch of freedom for all of us, they are showing immense courage… They are defending their lives, but they are also fighting for universal values and they are willing to die for them. President Zelensky and the Ukrainian people are our true inspiration.” She added, “This is a watershed moment for our union. We cannot take our security and the protection of people for granted. We have to stand up for it. We have to invest in it. We have to carry our fair share of the responsibility.”

Britain said on Tuesday it had passed a law that would ban all ships that have any connection to Russia from entering its ports. Britain had said on Monday that it wanted all ports to refuse entry to ships that were Russian flagged, registered or controlled while it drew up new legislation. “We’ve just become the first nation to pass a law involving a total ban of all ships with any Russian connection whatsoever from entering British ports,” Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said on Twitter.

Russia’s top security official Dmitry Medvedev responded on Tuesday to comments by French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire promising to wage an economic and financial war against Russia. “Today, some French minister has said that they declared an economic war on Russia. Watch your tongue, gentlemen! And don’t forget that in human history, economic wars quite often turned into real ones,” Medvedev, a former Russian president, wrote on his Twitter account. Earlier on Tuesday Le Maire had said, “we are going to deliver a total economic and financial war against Russia,” over its invasion of Ukraine.

The NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg met Polish President Andrzej Duda at the Lask Air Base in central Poland for talks on the eastern flank’s security, as Russia wages war on Ukraine, just across Poland’s eastern border. Stoltenberg and Duda shook hands early Tuesday at the 32rd Tactical Air Base in Lask, where Polish and NATO fighter jets are based, including F-16s. The United States recently reinforced the eastern flank of NATO’s territory with some 5,000 additional troops.

As many countries have expressed serious concern over the Russian president Vladimir Putin issuing an order for his country’s nuclear forces to “stay alert” in the wake of Russian invasion into Ukraine, some international experts believe that it could be only Russia’s attempt to remind the world that it was a nuclear country but did not intend to use the nuclear armaments on the ground. Experts assume that Putin made his contentious statements as a reminder to the world that Russia was a nuclear power that is not to be trifled with after the EU and the US imposed the harshest economic sanctions on Russia that the country has ever seen.  “Putin is likely doing this to scare the West into giving him concessions,” some US-based experts said. “This is his typical brinkmanship.”

A retied US army officer said he wasn’t surprised by the escalatory rhetoric. “Of course, it cost him nothing, nothing to threaten the use of nuclear weapons, An actual nuclear attack, however, would be a different story. If they should make the terrible calculation to employ a nuclear weapon, no matter how large or small, it will cost [Putin] and Russia everything.”

Putin putting the Russian deterrence forces “into a special mode of combat service” is not, however, widely considered as merely one last step away from declaring nuclear war.

Russia’s nuclear doctrine, which Putin himself approved as recently as 2020, states that the country would only resort to nuclear strikes in one of four cases: when ballistic missiles were fired at Russia or an ally’s territory, when an enemy used nuclear weapons, in response to an attack on a Russian nuclear weapons site, or in response to an attack threatening the very existence of the Russian state. None of these is the case in the war against Ukraine.

“If [Putin] really planned a nuclear attack, we would likely see dispersal of the mobile missiles on land and ordering all the submarines out to sea. We would also see arming of the bombers and activation of nuclear non-strategic forces,” the experts said. “A launch is highly unlikely unless Russia and NATO are in a direct military confrontation where Russia is losing.” And a nuclear attack on Ukraine, a country that is not part of the NATO alliance and does not have nuclear weapons itself, is viewed by experts as just as unlikely. “It wouldn’t make any sense at all. “If the goal is to take Ukraine, Russia doesn’t want to occupy a pile of radioactive debris,” they said.