Russia’s military yesterday said that it would “fundamentally” cut back operations near the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, and a northern city, potentially a significant concession by Moscow amid talks aimed at ending the war that began more than a month ago.
Russian Deputy Minister of Defense Alexander Fomin said the move was meant “to increase trust” in talks aimed at ending fighting, as negotiators met face-to-face after several rounds of failed negotiations.
Russia’s troops have been bogged down and struggling to make major advances.
Photo: Reuters
The talks in Istanbul, Turkey, raised flickering hopes that there could be progress toward ending a war that has ground into a bloody campaign of attrition.
Fomin said Moscow had decided to “fundamentally ... cut back military activity in the direction of Kyiv and Chernihiv” to “increase mutual trust and create conditions for further negotiations.”
Ukraine’s military said it had noted withdrawals around Kyiv and Chernihiv, although the Pentagon said it could not corroborate the reports.
Ahead of the talks, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said that his nation was prepared to declare its neutrality, as Moscow has demanded, and was open to compromise over the contested eastern region of Donbas — comments that might lend momentum to negotiations — but even as the negotiators assembled, Russian forces hit an oil depot in western Ukraine and demolished a government building in the south, with several deaths.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan told the two sides that they had a “historic responsibility” to stop the fighting.
“We believe that there will be no losers in a just peace. Prolonging the conflict is not in anyone’s interest,” Erdogan said, as he greeted the two delegations seated on opposite sides of a long table.
Russian President Vladimir Putin’s aim of a quick military victory has been thwarted by stiff Ukrainian resistance, but any hope that raised about prospects for an end to the conflict was accompanied by Western skepticism about the Russian leader’s commitment to seeking peace.
British Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs Liz Truss said she thought Putin was “not serious about talks.”
In fighting that has devolved into a back-and-forth stalemate, Ukrainian forces retook Irpin, a key suburb northwest of Kyiv, Zelenskiy said late on Monday, but he warned that Russian troops were regrouping to take the area back.
“We still have to fight, we have to endure,” Zelenskiy said in his nighttime video address to the nation. “This is a ruthless war against our nation, against our people, against our children.”
He also lashed out at Western nations, which he has repeatedly accused of not going far enough to punish Moscow with sanctions or support of Ukraine.
Western hesitancy in providing weapons makes those nations partially responsible for the destruction wrought, he said.
“Fear always makes you an accomplice,” he added.
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