PARIS — Deadlines, like hangings, help concentrate the mind, which explains the frantic pace of recent diplomatic activity in Kiev, where a tag team of Western envoys has been trying to cobble together a financial and political package to pull Ukraine out of its crisis.

The assumed deadline in this case is the end of the Sochi Winter Games, when President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia will no longer have to play the congenial Olympic host and can turn his attention to scoring a Russian “win” in Ukraine.

Exactly what Russia will do when Mr. Putin takes off his hockey gloves is unknowable — since this, like so much that passes for Russian diplomacy in its “near-abroad,” is probably lurking somewhere inside Mr. Putin’s head.

In fact, the deadline was always a bit phony. It seems Russia did not wait for the opening of the Games on Friday to work its mischief, with a leaked diplomatic telephone conversation — dated Jan. 25 — that had a top American official dismissing the European Union with a crude expletive. The United States State Department openly hinted at Russian responsibility for the leak, which makes sense since it would require expert listeners to troll through three-week-old tapes to find the four-minute segment where an American official says rude things about the European Union.