Sanctions, stalled talks and a Hungarian row: 3 May 2022
A look back at a day when Moscow signed a counter-sanctions decree and Vladimir Putin told Emmanuel Macron he was ready to keep talking.
What did diplomacy look like in the ninth week of the full-scale invasion? On 3 May 2022, it combined talk of negotiations, new Russian economic countermeasures and a fresh quarrel between Kyiv and Budapest.
Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree that would allow the Russian government to terminate business and exports with entities and people it deemed "unfriendly". It was a response to the international sanctions imposed on Russia during the invasion.
On the same day, Putin told French President Emmanuel Macron that Russia was ready to continue peace negotiations with Ukraine. The assurance came amid fears that talks between the two countries had stalled.
Pressure for an oil embargo
The sanctions debate had been running in the days before. On 1 May 2022, Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba told the EU's head of diplomacy, Josep Borrell, that the next EU sanctions package on Russia must include an oil embargo. Otherwise, he said, the West would be supporting Ukraine with one hand while financing the Russian war machine with the other.
That same day, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said Germany might lift sanctions against Russia if it withdrew its troops from Ukraine completely.
A dispute with Hungary
On 2 May 2022, Oleksiy Danilov, Secretary of Ukraine's National Security and Defence Council, accused Hungary of having had advance knowledge of the Russian invasion. He said Putin had warned Hungary and that Budapest had plans to annex parts of western Ukraine.
Washington's signals
On 1 May 2022, US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited Kyiv and met a number of Ukrainian diplomats. Ukraine's ambassador to the United States, Oksana Markarova, described the visit as symbolic and said Ukraine was waiting for passage of a bill providing an additional $33bn to support the country over the coming months. House Intelligence Committee chair Adam Schiff said that a visit to Ukraine by President Joe Biden was only a matter of time.
Fighting in Kharkiv region
The war continued on the ground. On 1 May 2022, Russian artillery fire near Izium in Kharkiv region killed three people and wounded eight. Oleh Synehubov, head of the regional military administration, said Russian forces were trying to advance towards the settlements of Udy, Prudianka and Staryi Saltiv.
