Thoughts must focus on bringing Putin to his senses

The war in Ukraine enters another dark phase with even greater potential for mass extinctions. In his message to the UN Security Council, Secretary of State Simon Coveney attempts to highlight the horror a nation must endure.

New York may be too far from the graves to properly articulate the toll of trauma inflicted on a people by ceaseless atrocities. If eyewitness accounts are to be believed, mere words would not suffice to describe the suffering.

When the Russians pulled out of Kiev’s suburbs, there was general shock at the discovery of 900 civilian bodies. Most of them had been murdered at close range, according to local police.

A Ukrainian resident of Bucha had bullet holes in his calves while “his arms were stretched out at odd angles between wooden slats with nails,” according to a report in theWashington Post.

Mr. Coveney last week became the first foreign minister from a UN Security Council state to visit Kyiv. He gave his word to the Ukrainian people that Ireland’s voice would be heard in the UN and EU as we push for an immediate ceasefire and a negotiated end to the Russian invasion. The key question is, will they listen?

The terrible urgency of finding a way to stem the slaughter and constructing some sort of diversion for it Wladimir Putin performs in the words of the mayor of Mariupol, who claimed that bodies were “laid through the streets”.

He has estimated, in a yet-unverifiable claim, that at least 21,000 civilians died in the Russian siege.

As Mr. Coveney said, this madness can stop today if Russia agrees to an immediate ceasefire, a withdrawal to pre-February 24 positions (ie before the invasion begins), and a commitment to dialogue.

His fears that renewed attacks will only guarantee more civilian slaughter ring true.

Russia’s armed forces have earned a grisly reputation for both indiscriminate bombing of urban areas and close quarters ferocity.

Signs indicate that the long-awaited offensive to seize Ukraine’s eastern Donbass region has begun. A different kind of fighting than the failed Russian campaign to capture Kiev is likely.

Instead of urban battles, there will be more battles in rural areas, over open terrain, between tank and artillery units. Peasants and villagers will now be on Russia’s ruthless path.

“No matter how many Russian troops are driven there, we will fight,” vowed President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. “We will fight back.”

More than seven weeks after the start of his war, Putin fails. He has recorded thousands of deaths on Russian battlefields and three front-line withdrawals by his military.

He was forced to adopt what is widely seen as “Plan B”. The question of how Putin got it so wrong will occupy future academics.

But today his heart and mind must be focused on the plight of those held prisoner in Ukraine and what needs to be done to make him think.