KHARKIV, Ukraine — With tens of thousands of Russian troops massed near Ukraine’s northern frontier, and as tensions intensified in the country’s eastern Donbas region, Western and Russian leaders continued to engage in a high-stakes dance Sunday mixing equal parts diplomatic bickering and military puffery — but with little sign that their efforts could successfully forestall the biggest conflict in Europe since World War II.
In the east, where the Ukrainian government has been mired for years in a stalemate against Russia-installed separatists, observers reported barrages of shelling across the cease-fire line established between the belligerents in 2015. And in a step designed to bolster Moscow’s narrative of an impending Ukrainian onslaught on the separatist enclaves, separatist authorities Sunday suspended leisure, cultural, entertainment and educational events until further notice. Earlier in the weekend, the separatists began evacuating thousands of women and children from Ukraine while ordering men of fighting age to gird for battle.
The intensification of hostilities in the east came as Belarus announced that some 30,000 Russian troops would extend their stay beyond the conclusion of joint exercises, countering earlier statements that not a single Russian soldier would remain on Belarus’ territory after Sunday.
