The Istanbul talks between the delegates of Russia and Ukraine undoubtedly led to some important developments in the efforts to end the ongoing war in Ukraine that has already devastated cities, led millions of Ukrainians to flee from their home, left thousands dead and injured and isolated the economy of Russia. After the peace talks, which received global attention, Russia announced that it will significantly lessen its military operations in Kyiv and Chernihiv, a northern city of Ukraine. By this time, Moscow has started to withdraw troops from the two noted territories, even if the reduction of troops is very slow.
Of course, this is a significant positive development since the commencement of the war between Russia and Ukraine. Indeed, all earlier diplomatic efforts failed to bring any notable outcomes and do anything significant in resolving the crisis. The latest developments may facilitate resolving the crisis. But how much the latest peace talks will help to end the crisis remains unclear at this moment. In the mean time, skepticism has grown among different quarters including Ukraine and the United States, although the conflicting countries planned to return Wednesday to peace talks that may produce a framework for ending the war in Ukraine, which is the biggest European conflict since World War Two. Pentagon criticizes that the reduction of Russian troops from Kyiv is a repositioning move rather than an actual withdrawal.
Of course, the war is going on. By this time, Russia has made it clear that de-escalation does not necessarily mean a cease-fire or complete withdrawal of troops from around Kyiv. More importantly, the possibility of further progress based on the latest Istanbul developments depends on many issues, stated and unstated in the peace talks. Along with the neutrality of Ukraine, Russia is emphatic on some other important issues including freeing the two eastern provinces namely Donetsk and Luhansk, collectively known as the Donbas region, and getting a land corridor from the Russian border to the Crimean peninsula, which was annexed by Russia in 2014. Indeed, Russia declared for increased military focus on the Donbas region a few days back.
Of course, some other issues within and outside of Ukraine including economic sanctions and Russia’s interests in the global sphere may also play significant roles in deciding on when and how to end the war completely, even if economic pressure is believed to have compelled Russia to come to the peace talks with Ukraine and Ukrainians resistance may play some roles in the new peace talks, Indeed, Russia’s threat to use nuclear weapons (given that its existence is at risk) is related to the unprecedented economic sanctions, rendered as all-out economic war by Russia, that hobbled overseas operations of Russian financial institutions and led to a huge devaluation of the Ruble with a possibility of slowly wearing down the Russian economy.
Thus, challenges are many and the time has not come to be much hopeful about progress. Yet, the progress declared can facilitate further talks at the delegation and the presidential level of the two countries. Of course, it is desired that diplomatic talks between the countries go on. This is because diplomatic talks will keep the possibility of resolving issues surrounding the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war and lead to ending the war.
Nota bene: The editorial views expressed are written by the Editorial Team (the Chief Editor) of Dhaka Opinion Magazine.
