Diplomatic wrangling hotting up around Ukraine

Ukraine’s three-week incursion has been countered recently by an intensifying Russian drone campaign against Ukrainian infrastructure. Russian troops have also made steady gains in the battle for the strategic logistics hub of Pokrovsk in the Donbas region in eastern Ukraine.

Meanwhile, in the background, the diplomatic wrangling in the more than 30-month-long war has also increased. But there’s no sign of a breakthrough or an indication that we might be seeing peace negotiations any time soon. In fact, intensified diplomatic efforts on both sides to shore up international support indicate a continuing lack of willingness to compromise.

On the Russian side, a three-day visit by Chinese premier Li Qiang, starting on August 21, was the highest-profile such engagement since the presidential summit between the Chinese and Russian leaders, Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin, in Beijing in May.

Li then went on to Minsk for meetings with the Belarusian president, Alexander Lukashenko, and the country’s prime minister, Roman Golovchenko. Little of substance was discussed beyond declarations of intent about further strengthening ties and maintaining high levels of cooperation. But the meetings sent a clear signal of continuing Chinese support to Russia and its ally Belarus.

This signal was reinforced a day after Li’s departure for Minsk when a high-level Chinese military delegation, led by the commander of the ground forces of the Chinese army, Li Qiaoming, arrived in Moscow for talks with Russia’s deputy defense minister, Alexander Fomin.

According to the Russian defense ministry, the two sides “reached agreements during the meeting on further enhancing cooperation between the ground forces in various spheres.”

Modi maneuvering

Whi