Tone of Ukraine Crisis Shifts as Russia Signals Openness to Talk More

MOSCOW — The tone of the crisis over Ukraine shifted Monday as Russia’s top diplomat endorsed more talks to resolve its standoff with the West, and Ukrainian officials hinted at offering concessions to avert war — even as Russian warships massed off Ukraine’s Black Sea coast and Russian ground troops appeared poised to strike.

In stage-managed, televised meetings, the Kremlin sent its strongest signals yet that it would seek further negotiations with the West rather than launch immediate military action. State television showed Foreign Minister Sergey V. Lavrov telling President Vladimir V. Putin there was still a diplomatic path ahead. Minutes later, it showed Defense Minister Sergei K. Shoigu telling Mr. Putin that what he characterized as “large-scale drills” around Ukraine were coming to an end.

“I believe that our possibilities are far from exhausted,” Mr. Lavrov said, referring to Russia’s negotiations with the West. “I would propose continuing and intensifying them.”

Mr. Putin responded ambiguously: “Good.”

It was a sign that the Kremlin was still holding out the possibility that it could use its troop buildup to achieve key objectives without military action. The prospect for such a scenario was bolstered in Kyiv, the Ukrainian capital, where President Volodymyr Zelensky left open the possibility of dropping his country’s ambition to join the NATO alliance — a move that would help fulfill one of Mr. Putin’s key demands.

At a news conference, Mr. Zelensky emphasized that NATO membership was “for our security,” with the goal of joining the alliance written into the country’s constitution. But he acknowledged the difficult place the country found itself in, nearly completely encircled by Russian forces and with partners like the United States insisting they would not send troops into Ukraine to repel a Russian invasion.

“How much should Ukraine go on that path?” Mr. Zelensky said of NATO membership. “Who will support us?”

The prospect of Ukraine joining NATO, he posited, could be “like a dream.”

Mr. Zelensky spoke alongside Chancellor Olaf Scholz of Germany, the latest Western leader trying shuttle diplomacy to avert war. The flurry of diplomacy came as fears of war have caused oil prices to spike, pushing well past $90 a barrel.

“If Russia violates the territorial integrity of Ukraine again, we know what to do,” Mr. Scholz said. “In the event of military escalation, we are ready for very far-reaching and effective sanctions in coordination with our allies.”

Mr. Scholz will fly to Moscow on Tuesday for crisis talks with Mr. Putin, following up on last week’s Kremlin visit by President Emmanuel Macron of France. Foreign Minister Zbigniew Rau of Poland — a country that is one of Russia’s most vocal critics in Europe — was also scheduled to visit Moscow on Tuesday to meet with his Russian counterpart, Mr. Lavrov. And Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio of Italy prepared to depart for his own Eastern European tour, which will bring him to Kyiv on Tuesday and Moscow on Wednesday.

Because of the continuing crisis, the United States is temporarily closing its embassy in Kyiv, the Ukrainian capital, and moving its operations to Lviv, a city much farther from Russian territory, the State Department said.

In Mr. Lavrov’s televised meeting with Mr. Putin, he highlighted the West’s diplomatic frenzy as a sign that the Kremlin’s strategy of pairing negotiations with military pressure was working. Mr. Putin laid out that strategy in an address to Russian diplomats in November: it was good that “tensions” were high with the West, the president told them, and it was “important for them to remain in this state for as long as possible.”

And he directed his diplomats to demand “security guarantees” from the West, such as a legally binding pledge that Ukraine will never join the NATO alliance.

“Our initiative,” Mr. Lavrov told Mr. Putin, “shook up our Western colleagues and became the reason they have no longer been able to ignore many of our previous appeals.”

Mr. Lavrov also said that Russia had prepared a 10-page response in its written back-and-forth with NATO and the United States over the Kremlin’s security demands.

Ambiguity about what comes next has been central to Mr. Putin’s strategy in the crisis set off by his troop buildup. Western officials warn that an invasion remains a real possibility in the coming days.

In Monday’s televised meetings, Mr. Putin did not state his own position, even after his defense minister told him that Russian military exercises were winding down. He did not specify which exercises were ending, but Russia has used the pretext of exercises to move troops and warships from across the country to within striking distance of Ukraine.

“Some of the drills are already ending and some will end soon,” Mr. Shoigu said.

“We’ll speak in more detail now,” Mr. Putin told him, before the Kremlin’s…