Senate lend-lease vote and Moscow's NATO condition: 6 April 2022
A look back at a day when Washington moved to speed up arms deliveries to Ukraine while Russia set out a constitutional demand in peace talks.
What did the diplomacy and military support around Ukraine look like on 6 April 2022, two days after the discovery of a mass grave in Bucha shocked the world? Two developments stood out: a unanimous vote in the United States Senate and a Russian statement on the terms for ending its invasion.
Washington moves on lend-lease
The US Senate unanimously passed a bill authorising President Joe Biden to use the lend-lease programme, last employed during the Second World War, to speed up the delivery of military equipment to Ukraine. The unanimity of the vote was part of the story, as the measure was aimed at shortening the time it took for hardware to reach the country.
Moscow sets a condition
On the same day, Russia said it would end its invasion if Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy agreed to conditions set out during negotiations. The central one was a legal guarantee that Ukraine would not join NATO, to be secured by amending the Ukrainian constitution to include such a provision.
Russia also said it had suspended operations in Kyiv as a goodwill gesture intended to promote peace talks. Background on the Battle of Bucha shows that the fighting there, part of a wider effort to encircle the capital, had ended on 31 March 2022 with the withdrawal of Russian forces.
The shadow of Bucha
The diplomatic exchanges unfolded against the backdrop of the previous days. On 4 April 2022, Kyiv region police and local residents said a mass grave had been found in Bucha and that, in their view, at least 150 people were buried there. The town's mayor said the number of dead could reach 300. Zelenskyy visited the site.
The same day, Biden called for Russian President Vladimir Putin to face a war crimes trial after more images of the Bucha massacre emerged. Zelenskyy said peace talks would continue despite the killings.
Taken together, the events of 6 April 2022 showed two tracks running in parallel: a Western effort to accelerate military supplies, and a negotiating process in which Russia tied an end to its invasion to a constitutional change on NATO membership.
