Can Peace Talks Succeed?

Only a month ago Vladimir Putin was more than likely dreaming of visiting Kyiv as its conqueror, the city’s mythical neo-Nazi government and its renegade president Volodymyr Zelensky driven into exile by a populace grateful to Russia for their liberation.

- Sean O'grady

Now the Russian army has faced numerous humiliations by far smaller Ukrainian forces, with its soldiers facing accusations including the use of rape as a weapon of war.

So, far from occupying Kyiv and ousting Zelensky, the Ukrainian leader has been transformed into a Churchillian hero on a global scale, and the deputy defence minister of Russia, Alexander Fomin, has promised to “fundamentally cut back” operations near the capital and around Chernihiv, also in the north of the country. It is tantamount to an admission that the “special military operation” cannot succeed on its original terms.

Fomin says he wishes to “increase mutual trust” at the talks in Turkey aimed at ending the fighting. In reality, the disorganised and poorly led Russian armed forces have seemingly run out of road, and, as they conceded the other day, are concentrating on the east and south of Ukraine instead, possibly with a view to “altering the facts on the ground” – with the possibility of permanently occupying the territory after a ceasefire.