Discussions exist, agreements not yet

The belligerent sides continue to interpret the preliminary resuts of the Istanbul talks.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said negotiations with Russia are ongoing, but are “only words. “There are other words about alleged pullback of Russian troops from Kyiv and Chernihiv, and reduction of activities of the occupiers in these territories. This is not a retreat, this is the result of the work of our defenders, who pushed them back,” he said.

He went on to say that Russian troops are concentrating in the Donbas region for new attacks, saying Ukrainians are “ready for this.”

A Ukrainian negotiator, David Arakhamia, said that talks would continue by video, focusing on the peace framework the Ukrainian side presented during a face-to-face meeting in Istanbul this week that Moscow described as constructive.

Turkey’s Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said the foreign ministers of Russia and Ukraine may meet again within one or two weeks with Turkey as a mediator. He said he will continue efforts to bring Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and his Ukrainian counterpart Dmytro Kuleba together for a second time.

Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi said that in a conversation with Putin, the latter said that time for a meeting with Zelensky hasn’t come yet and conditions were not yet in place for a ceasefire in Ukraine.

Russians want enemy to follow Ivan Susanin

Pentagon press secretary John Kirby said that over the last 24 hours, they have seen the repositioning of a small percentage of the Russian troops, probably in the neighborhood of 20 percent of what they had. “Some of those troops we assess are repositioning into Belarus. We don't have an exact number for you, but that’s our early assessments.

“The Russian army became much more active in the last few days. For instance, we think that the Wagner Group now has about 1,000 people dedicated to the Donbas. We have seen an increase. I shouldn’t say in increase, we have seen them prioritize airstrikes in the Donbas area”.

He noted officials of the Pentagon tried to contact the Russian side, but unsuccessfully.

If it happens once again…

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called for further sanctions on Russia during a virtual address to the Australian parliament on Thursday.

He said that if Russia is allowed to get away with atrocities like what’s unfolding in Ukraine, the whole world will become more unsafe. To illustrate his point, he referenced the downing of MH17 by Russian-backed separatists over eastern Ukraine in 2014. All 298 on board were killed, including 38 Australians. “So the unpunished evil comes back. If the world had punished Russia in 2014 for what it did, there wouldn’t be this invasion in Ukraine in 2022,” he said.

According to the Swedish TV channel TV4, two Russian planes that violated Swedish airspace near the island of Gotland on March 2 were equipped with nuclear weapons. It was an act of intimidation of Sweden. The violation lasted about a minute, and the Swedes noticed the planes in advance. They were intercepted by two JAS 39 Gripen fighters.

Troops disguised in civilian authorities?

The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said the leadership of the Russian Federation is considering the formation of occupation authorities in the temporarily occupied territories. Employees of law enforcement agencies, prosecutor’s offices and courts are being selected on the territory of the Russian Federation, which will be sent to the territory of Ukraine in the future.

To implement the scenario of creating another pseudo-republic in the Kherson region, the work of the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation, the 652nd Group of Information and Psychological Operations and officers of the 12th Main Directorate of the General Staff of the Russian Federation is noted. The main activity of these units is the so-called “explanatory work” with local authorities and the public.

Moldova in the focus of U.S. and US diplomats

U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Victoria Nuland and European External Action Service Deputy Secretary General for Political Affairs Enrique Mora discussed the coordination of U.S. and EU policies and actions related to Russia in connection with the situation around Ukraine in Washington, the U.S. Department of State reported.

“They also discussed additional steps to isolate Russia further from the U.S. and EU economies and the international financial system to impose severe costs on Russia for its actions,” the State Department said in a statement.

Nuland and Mora also discussed issues of “high-level attention and support to the Republic of Moldova and to work together to strengthen its resilience”.

Forecast: if Ukraine loses, Moldova will be “swallowed” without water

Vladimir Pastuhov, senior research associate at University College London, a year ago wrote that Vladimir Putin would cause a big war to keep power. Now he says the war can end three ways: the whole Ukraine will be occupied and the occupation of Moldova and, eventually, Georgia can follow and then the Russian army will stop frontally in territories that are legally and effectively under the NATO umbrella. “We will have to take a decision if we want a third world war, here and now.”

Ukraine discusses grain export via Constanța with Romania

Ukraine seeks an agreement with Romania on exporting its agricultural products through the port of Constanta. Minister of Agrarian Policy and Food Mykola Solsky said Ukraine has tens of millions of tons of agricultural products for export that cannot be shipped because Russia has blocked all Ukrainian ports. As a result, Ukraine is losing $1.5B a month, Europe is experiencing a food crisis, and hunger is rising in Africa.

“So, we are looking for alternative logistics routes to send our goods through European seaports, including the Romanian seaport of Constanta,” Solsky noted.