Hopes of an end to the bloodshed in Ukraine grew this week after Volodymyr Zelensky said that the ongoing peace talks with Russia were beginning to “sound more realistic”. During a meeting in Kyiv with the prime ministers of Slovenia, Poland and the Czech Republic, the Ukrainian president noted that “all wars end in agreements” and conceded that his country had to accept that the “door of Nato” had closed. However, Western leaders remained downbeat about the chances of an imminent breakthrough, and Vladimir Putin accused Kyiv of “not showing a serious commitment to finding mutually acceptable solutions”. As diplomatic efforts continued, Russian troops continued to push towards in the western suburbs of Kyiv and maintained their siege of strategic cities such as Mariupol (see page 20), where they were…
