Fears are spreading that Moscow will only seek a strategic pause after 20 disastrous days of campaigning. Intensified attacks on civilian targets is a bad sign.

A day that began with the optimism of a possible breakthrough in the negotiations between Ukraine and Russia ended with the dramatic image of the municipal theater of Mariupol, where it is presumed that there were hundreds of refugees, reduced to ashes after a bombing. This growing cruelty by Vladimir Putin’s army on the battlefield means that news of the progress of the talks is greeted with skepticism in Brussels, where NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg lamented on Wednesday that Russia is stepping up its indiscriminate attacks on civilian targets.

“On the ground, we don’t see any signs, and that’s why we ask Russia to participate in these talks in good faith,” the secretary-general said bluntly when they asked to assess whether he saw Moscow really involved in the negotiations, shaking his head while still listening to the question.

The issue is key because there is a fear that Moscow is using the diplomatic process to buy time and rebuild its offensive, stalled after 20 days of the invasion. Although the Russian army keeps under fire and siege several Ukrainian towns, including the capital Kyiv, it has barely managed to take a relevant city and at a great human cost. A pause in the attack, some of the allies suspect, would give Moscow leeway to reorganize its logistics at the front. That is why Stoltenberg insisted on continuing to support Kyiv to strengthen its position at the negotiating table.

“It is very important not to speculate on the outcome of these talks, but it is obvious that what Ukraine can get at the table is very connected to what it can achieve on the battlefield,” he explained.

On the development of the invasion, the secretary-general of the Atlantic Alliance asked not to make the same mistake as the Kremlin in underestimating Ukraine’s resilience – and the West’s willingness to apply sanctions. “Russia remains a formidable military power and it is too early to speculate on the outcome, what we need is for them to stop the war, for Putin to take out his troops and for a political solution to be found,” he said at the press conference.

NATO is always very cautious with Russia’s intentions, and it would not be the first time that Moscow has played catch-up in this crisis. Before the invasion, when Putin said he was withdrawing part of his troops from the Ukrainian border because they had finished their military practices, Stoltenberg pointed out that, far from that de-escalation happening, the sending of more troops to the area was still being sent. The troops were being moved to different positions, but not back to their barracks.

“War Criminal”

Also in Washington, they showed their doubts about the good faith of negotiations that take place under the bombs. “If Russia is serious about diplomacy, then Moscow should stop attacking Ukrainian cities and towns,” White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan told his Russian counterpart Nikolai Patrushev, the White House said in a statement.

However, far from stopping their attack, Wednesday was an especially ruthless day with civilians.

“They have purposely and cynically destroyed [Russian forces] the Dramatic Theatre, in the heart of Mariupol. The plane dropped the bomb on a building where there are hundreds of peaceful residents of Mariupol refugees,” local authorities said on a Telegram channel.

“It is impossible to estimate the scale of this inhumane act because the residential part of the city continues under bombardment,” he added, detailing that both the central part of the theater and the entrance to the bomb shelter had been destroyed. Russia denied attacking the building. Shelling also continued in other parts of the country, such as in Chernihiv in the north, where 10 people were killed while queuing to buy bread, and also in the historic chaste of Kiev.

“I think [Putin] is a war criminal,” U.S. President Joe Biden said Wednesday.

Earlier, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky addressed the U.S. Congress with an emotional speech calling for more help and involvement in the war. The president sought the empathy of lawmakers by invoking the Pearl Harbor and September 11 attacks, insisting that they dare to take the step of imposing a no-fly zone over Ukraine to avoid punishment for Russian aviation.

“Russia has turned the Ukrainian sky into a source of death for thousands of people,” Zelensky said in a video conference from Kyiv along with his General Staff, the national resistance. “Is it too much to ask? Create a no-fly zone to save people? Is it too much?” he added in his speech, which received a standing ovation from the US congressmen.

The United States and NATO have reiterated on numerous occasions — Stoltenberg himself, on Wednesday — that they will not intervene in the conflict either with soldiers on the ground or with the establishment of a no-fly zone, which could be the prelude to a direct clash between the West and Russia. What Washington did commit to was sending more funds (an additional $1 billion) and military assistance, including anti-aircraft systems, anti-armor systems, machine guns, grenade launchers and, for the first time since the offensive began, armed drones.

“The United States is committed to sending our state-of-the-art defense systems to the defense of Ukraine,” Biden said from the White House. “We will continue to watch the backs [of Ukrainians] as they fight for their freedom, their democracy, their survival. We are going to give Ukraine weapons to fight and defend itself in these difficult days ahead,” he added.

Image Credit: Getty

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