In the blink of an eye, the Russian-Ukrainian conflict had entered its 14th day, and there was not much time left for Zelenskiy.
On the evening of March 8, the Russian Defense Ministry said that since February 24, the Russian military has destroyed 2,581 military targets in Ukraine, including 90 command posts, 897 tanks and combat vehicles, 84 drones and 123 air defense facilities.
Since 10 a.m. on March 8, most of the Russian army has entered a state of "silence", and there are not many Ukrainians willing to leave Kiev, Kharkov, Mariupol, and even to Russia or Belarus.
The Russian Ministry of Defense revealed that on March 8, the Russian army and the Donbass civilian armed forces took control of 7 villages in eastern Ukraine, and after ending the "silence", the Donetsk civilian armed forces advanced 1 kilometer to Mariupol.
In order to assist the evacuation of the people, the Russian army dispatched armored vehicles from Crimea, and the Russian Black Sea Fleet was also helping other countries evacuate their nationalities.
At 10 a.m. on March 9, the Russian military once again entered "silence" while Russia warned the countries that provided weapons and mercenary support to Ukraine.
On March 10, the Russian and Ukrainian foreign ministers will hold a fourth round of talks in Turkey, which is considered to be the "last tranquility before the storm" and will participate as a mediator.
Earlier, Erdogan held telephone talks with Putin, and Erdogan expressed his willingness to mediate in the Russian-Ukrainian conflict.
Regarding the latest situation of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, there are several things worth noting.
First, Zelenskiy deliberately asked for peace. On March 8, Zelenskiy angrily stated that Ukraine had only heard Western promises, and for 13 days, the West had been saying that it would provide air support to Ukraine and promised to send warplanes to Ukraine, but this was not the case, and Ukraine did not see the West take action.
Zelenskiy stressed that Ukraine is in dire need of anti-aircraft missiles, which is crucial.
Zelenskiy also expressed dissatisfaction with the United States, which believed that the United States could clearly provide more help to Ukraine, but ultimately did not take practical action.
Zelenskiy shouted to Putin that it is time to end the war and sit down to talks, Russia and Ukraine should negotiate on specific issues, the starting point should be "putting the interests of the people first", and Ukraine is willing to negotiate with Russia on crimea and Donbass.
In an interview with the US media, Zelenskiy did not hide his disappointment with NATO at all. Zelenskiy said Kiev has understood that NATO will not take over Ukraine, that NATO is afraid of a conflict with Russia, and that Ukraine will not kneel down and beg NATO.
From the time Russian armored vehicles gathered near Kiev, the Chechen army came to Maliupol, and Putin showed a nuclear deterrent, Zelenskiy did not hesitate to call on Putin to "sit down and talk", Zelenskiy stressed that the top priority is to let Putin start a dialogue.
The problem is that Putin, who sees Zelenskiy as just a "manipulated person," is not willing to negotiate directly with Zelenskiy.
The second thing is that Russia and Ukraine have set the terms for negotiations, and both sides have made concessions. Who has more chips at the negotiating table depends on who has the advantage in the war,
For now, in the case that the people have not completely withdrawn and the Russian army cannot attack the city with heavy weapons, the war situation is still in a state of stalemate, and it is the Russian army that occupies the initiative, but the combat effectiveness of the Ukrainian army cannot be underestimated.
Thus there was such a scene: in the first negotiation, the Russian and Ukrainian representatives dispersed unhappily and could not talk at all; in the second negotiation, the two sides began to test each other; and in the third negotiation, Russia and Ukraine were willing to temporarily cease fire and let the people evacuate safely. Of course, the actual situation is different from the expected existence, after all, the extreme forces such as the Azov battalion do not want the people to leave.
As negotiations deepened, Russia's offers became more pragmatic. In the beginning, Putin's truce demanded four things: Ukraine must remain neutral, recognize Crimea as Russia, recognize the independence of Donetsk and Luhansk, and de-militarize.
But after the third meeting, Russia's demands became less, and "de-militarization" was not mentioned again, that is, Ukraine was no longer required to abolish martial arts.
At the same time, Ukraine has also chosen to make concessions.
Zelenskiy offered 2 conditions.
1, Russia must guarantee the security of Ukraine.
2. Ukraine must sign collective security agreements with the United States, Russia, France, and Germany, as well as with all its neighbors.
In short, Zelenskiy's demands are this: Putin must stop military operations, get Russian troops out of Ukraine, and sign a binding security agreement that the United States, the European Union, and Belarus will sign together. In this way, Kiev can prevent Russia from rebelling and eliminate worries.
In exchange, Ukraine could commit not to join NATO, at least for the short term.
As for Crimea and Donbass, Ukraine could negotiate with Russia and could make concessions.
The third thing is the attitude of the United States, Britain, and the European Union. Putin has included 48 countries and regions, such as the United States, Britain, France, Germany, Japan and Australia, in the list of "unfriendly to Russia", and then, Russian entities and individuals can directly use rubles to settle the bill regardless of whether they are three or seven or twenty-one when repaying the debts of these countries.
The United States launched a new sanction on March 8, that is, to ban the import of Russian oil and gas, the United Kingdom decided to stop importing Russian oil before the end of 2022, but did not say "whether to continue to purchase natural gas", Japan intends to impose additional sanctions on Russia, and try to find Trouble for Russia again on the issue of the ownership of the four northern islands.
Franco-German attitudes began to change. Macron said that Russia's interests also need to be respected, and France and the European Union should start a dialogue with Russia. Germany decided to continue importing Russian energy, and Scholz expressed reluctance to emulate the United States and Britain, because Germany is still dependent on Russian oil and gas for the time being.
The reason why France and Germany refuse to tear their faces with Russia is because they see the opportunity of the Russian-Ukrainian peace talks, and second, they do not want to be tied up by the United States, after all, the Russian-Ukrainian conflict was provoked by the United States, and France and Germany know this very well.
Fourth, what will be the outcome of the fourth round of negotiations between Russia and Ukraine? On March 9, the Russian-Ukrainian war has reached its 14th day, and life in Ukraine is indeed not good, but Putin is also under great pressure.
These days, the evacuation of overseas Chinese from various countries is almost over, and the Ukrainian people who should leave Kiev, Kharkov and other places have basically withdrawn.
This means that Putin will not continue to confront Ukraine, and if the March 10 negotiations are not concluded, the Russian military will have to move.
As soon as the cannon is fired, the gold is ten thousand. Russia is not generous, the severe sanctions of Western countries have caused a sharp depreciation of the ruble, the Russian economy can be said to be deteriorating, if ukraine spends a few months, the situation will inevitably be worse.
Now that Putin has made the military decision to attack Ukraine, the Russian army cannot return in vain, and the question now is, how much is Russia prepared to pay in exchange for victory?
It can be expected that if the Russian and Ukrainian foreign ministers do not negotiate in Turkey, the Russian army is likely to launch a siege and annihilation war, end the battle as quickly as possible, and then force Ukraine to sign the alliance under the city.
Frankly speaking, the two conditions offered by Ukraine that Putin can accept are whether Ukraine recognizes Russia's sovereignty over Crimea, as well as the sovereignty and borders of Donetsk and Luhansk.
Like the sudden global pandemic, the Russian-Ukrainian war will have a profound impact on the world situation, which is Putin's attempt to break the NATO blockade. For now, it is not possible to judge who will win, despite the military superiority of the Russians.
In any case, I still hope that Russia and Ukraine can talk about it on March 10, otherwise, what awaits Russia and Ukraine will be a lose-lose situation. The possibility of the United States forcing countries to take sides is not ruled out, because the goal of the United States is to regain domination of the world order.