Russia's President Vladimir Putin (L) and Deputy Prime Minister Dmitri Kozak visit the Olympic media center in Sochi January 4, 2014. Putin has taken complete political control of the separatist forces by sending veteran troubleshooter Kozak to take over Russia’s relations with the so-called Donetsk People’s Republic and the Luhansk People’s Republic. Credit: REUTERS/Alexei Nikolskiy/RIA Novosti/Kremlin Ukraine has become the object of high-stakes diplomacy. This does not mean that fighting has stopped—quite the opposite. Russian forces continue to launch probes and violate the cease-fire agreement; they have substantially reinforced themselves, as have the Ukrainian forces arrayed against them. Nevertheless, a major diplomatic campaign is occurring. Russian President Vladimir Putin has taken complete political control of the separatist forces by sending veteran troubleshooter Dmitri Kozak to take over Russia's relations with the so-called Donetsk People's Republic (DNR) and the Luhansk People's Republic (LNR). He also sent another confidante, Boris Gryzlov, former chairman of the Duma, to negotiate with Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko in Kyiv, and a third gray eminence, Vladislav Surkov, has met with US Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland in Kaliningrad. Although we do not know the outcome of these discussions, they represent an effort to achieve some sort of diplomatic solution whose details will gradually unfold.