Ukraine talks Can history help find a path to rapprochement with Putin?

So high have the stakes been set by Russia over the future security architecture of Europe, so imminent is the threat of war in Ukraine, that the three meetings due between Russia and the west this week have drawn comparison with great west-Russia exchanges of the past : Yalta in 1945, Paris in 1960 – over Berlin – and Reykjavík in 1986.

- Patrick Wintour

Vladimir Putin would probably revel in these comparisons. Indeed, the very scheduling of the bilateral security meeting with the US on Monday, a rare meeting of the Nato-Russian Council on Wednesday and an Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) meeting on Ukraine on Thursday, have been seen by some as a mistake.

Joe Biden has clearly taken the view that the risks of being seen to be rewarding Putin are outweighed by the need for dialogue. Not to talk would be to feed the Russian narrative that the west is not prepared even to listen.

The meeting agendas were subtly different. While the west wanted to focus on the sovereignty of Ukraine, and missile placement, Russia expected a response to its threefold demands: withdrawal of US nuclear weapons from Europe; removal of Nato forces close to Russian borders; the legal permanent renunciation of Nato membership for Ukraine and Georgia, to curb its enlargement. Some western officials feared they had been packaged to be rejected.