Ukraine’s ‘lightning invasion’ slams Russia’s escalating war, putting a damper on peace talks

Ukraine’s ‘lightning invasion’ slams Russia’s escalating war, putting a damper on peace talks

Ukraine’s attempted ‘lightning invasion’ of Russia and Russia’s renewed attacks on eastern Ukrainian cities have escalated the war, making peace talks difficult.
Ukrainian civilians were ordered to leave the eastern Ukrainian city of Pokrovsk on Monday as Russian troops advanced rapidly, the AP reported.
Russian troops, responding to Ukraine’s lightning invasion of Russia’s Kursk region, were advancing so quickly that Ukrainian families were ordered to evacuate starting Monday, and Ukrainian officials told the AP that about 53,000 people still live in Pokrovsk, but some of them decided to leave immediately.
“Russia postponed its participation in a Qatar conference on energy security after the Kursk invasion,” the New York Times reported, adding that diplomats “have not backed out of the talks but have characterized the invasion as an escalation, saying they need more time.”

The New York Times reported on the 19th that “Kiev is making a risky bet that this Russian incursion will give it new leverage to negotiate a favorable deal with the Kremlin,” and that “Russians who know Putin expect him to respond with a fierce attack, believing that his military has the upper hand in manpower and weapons.” There are already signs that the ceasefire efforts on both sides are faltering. A diplomat who was involved in the talks told the Times that Russian officials have postponed talks scheduled for this month in Qatar to negotiate a halt to attacks on each other’s energy infrastructure.

The New York Times reported that “Last July, Ukrainian President Zelensky secretly prepared to invade Russia while publicly signaling that he wanted talks to end the war.” “And it was even more shocking when Ukrainian troops advanced into Russia’s Kursk region on August 6, giving Putin one of the most embarrassing moments of the 30-month war and disconcerting predictions that the two countries might be headed toward a ceasefire.” The Ukrainian invasion was a risky bet that it would give the Kremlin new leverage for favorable negotiations, and the immediate response was an advance into eastern Ukraine.

Regarding the Kursk invasion of Ukraine, “Putin will now find ways to increase the pain he inflicts on Ukraine, and rather than negotiate, Putin is convinced that Russia will eventually win, so he is prepared to take more risks and force Ukraine to pay a higher price,” Tatiana Stanovaya, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment’s Russia and Eurasia Center, told the New York Times.
In June, President Zelensky led a meeting of 92 countries in Switzerland under the motto of “just and lasting peace,” and included Ukraine’s NATO membership and Russia’s complete withdrawal as agenda items, but China, which participated, refused to sign the joint declaration, explicitly stating that “Russia would not participate.”
President Zelensky then said that he would “negotiate directly with Russia,” and that he could be invited to a second “peace summit,” saying that “Ukraine could regain its territory through negotiations.” President Zelensky then announced that he would hold the “first meeting” on energy security in Qatar in July, and that he would visit Turkey and Canada to hold “meetings on food security, prisoners of war, and Ukrainian children taken to Russia,” but on August 6, he prepared and carried out the audacious attack on the Russian mainland, the Kursk invasion.