It will take intense diplomacy to end the suffering of Ukrainians

Two months into the Ukraine invasion and there is no sign of a way out. Sometimes the situation seems almost surreal. Russia has appealed to the US to stop arms sales to the Ukrainians as this would only prolong the killing.

It is better to give Putin’s war machine a clear shot at civilians than to offer them the means to fire back. Yes, from the Kremlin’s reverse binocular view, it makes a twisted, myopic sense.

There is a terrible danger that we will become accustomed to the carnage. Over time, there is a risk that the whole situation will drift into a strategic impasse. Let’s be clear, two of the world’s leading nuclear powers are marginalizing each other. The threat of a far greater conflagration is ever-present, unknown thousands have already been killed, there is clear evidence of atrocities and war crimes, and millions have lost their homes.

Despite this spiraling descent towards disaster; Appeals for humanitarian corridors to stop a bloodbath at the Azovstal Steelworks in Mariupol are the closest thing to a peace initiative.

And even they will probably be drowned out by shells. Anatoly Antonov, Russia’s ambassador to the US, had the audacity to claim that such US arms shipments aimed to weaken Russia and escalate the conflict in Ukraine, while undermining efforts to reach some sort of peace deal.

The fact is, however, that Putin could stop the “military special operation” with a snap of his fingers.

The US has pledged $3.4 billion in military aid to Ukraine since the invasion began.

president Joe Biden has said Putin “will never succeed in dominating and occupying all of Ukraine”. The US provided 10 anti-tank weapons for every Russian tank in Ukraine, the country now has more tanks than the invaders.

According to the British Defense Ministry, 15,000 Russian military personnel have been killed in the fighting so far. President Biden has repeatedly said that the US will not directly intervene in the war in Ukraine. But it’s clearly not a spectator anymore either.

The arrival of US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin in Kyiv sent a clear message of America’s deepening engagement. Washington would love to see Putin’s own miscalculation weakened and Russia’s ability to threaten other countries equally reduced. Losses are already significant for Moscow.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan met in Ankara. Both “reaffirmed that their common goal is to end the war as quickly as possible and to create conditions to end the suffering of civilians”.

The tenacity and determination of the Ukrainian people after two months of relentless bombing was remarkable.

You need help to defend yourself. But renewed and intense diplomatic efforts must also be made to ensure they no longer need it.