Like early morning river mist, hopes of peace in Ukraine rise momentarily, then dissipate with the first sigh of a contrary breeze. UN chief António Guterres mounts a mission to Moscow and Kyiv – then Vladimir Putin’s missiles blow it all to hell. Russia coyly offers talks at next month’s G20 summit. Then Joe Biden scoffs: they’re not serious, he’s heard it all before.
Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, watches his cities burn anew and vows never to negotiate while Putin rules. Turkey, playing a double game, confuses mediation with collaboration at a secretive Kazakh tryst. Meanwhile, a world aghast at scary escalations and threats of nuclear war cries out in alarm: “When will it end? And how?”
