JAKARTA - Ukraine reacted with skepticism to Russia's pledge in negotiations to reduce military operations around Kyiv and other cities, during peace talks in Turkey yesterday.
The talks took place at a palace in Istanbul, more than a month after the biggest attack on the European country since World War Two that has killed or injured thousands, forced nearly 4 million people to flee abroad and hit Russia's economy with sanctions.
The invasion had been halted on most fronts by fierce resistance from Ukrainian forces who had retaken territory, while civilians were trapped in besieged towns.
"In order to increase mutual trust and create the necessary conditions for further negotiations and achieve the ultimate goal of agreeing and signing (a) agreement, the decision was made to radically, by a large margin, reduce military activity in the direction of Kyiv and Chernihiv," the Deputy of Russian Defense Minister Alexander Fomin told reporters after yesterday's talks, citing Reuters, March 30.
He did not mention other areas that have seen heavy fighting, including around Mariupol to the southeast, Sumy and Kharkiv to the east, and Kherson and Mykolaiv to the south.
"Ukraine is not a naive person," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Tuesday night.
"Ukraine has learned during the 34 days of this invasion, and during the last eight years of the war in Donbass, that the only thing they can trust is real results," he said.
Meanwhile, Russia has begun removing very small numbers of troops from positions around Kyiv in a move that is more of a repositioning than a retreat or retreat from war, the Pentagon said on Tuesday.
"We must all be prepared to be on guard against a major attack on other parts of Ukraine," spokesman John Kirby told a news conference.
"That does not mean that the threat against Kyiv is over," he said.
Separately, the UK Ministry of Defense in an intelligence update said: "It is very likely that the Russians will try to divert their fighting forces from the north to their offensive in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions in the east."
Reuters could not immediately verify the claims made by the two sides.
Some analysts note Russia's pledge to reduce fighting mostly covers areas where it has lost ground.
The general staff of the Ukrainian armed forces said Russia's pledge to limit military operations in some areas "may be the rotation of individual units and is aimed at misleading."
The Russian military accused Ukrainian troops in the attacked cities of using the ceasefire to restore their combat readiness, setting up firing points in hospitals and schools, the Interfax news agency said.
To note, in yesterday's negotiations Ukraine presented a proposal, in which Kyiv would agree not to join the alliance or host foreign troop bases. But it will have guaranteed security in terms similar to "Article 5", the collective defense clause of the transatlantic NATO military alliance.
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They named Israel and NATO members Canada, Poland, and Turkey as countries that could provide such guarantees. Russia, the United States, Britain, Germany, and Italy could also be involved.
The proposal, which would require a referendum in Ukraine, also mentions a 15-year consultation period on the status of Crimea, which was annexed by Russia in 2014.
The fate of the southeastern Donbass region, which Russia demands that Ukraine be handed over to the separatists, will be discussed by Ukrainian and Russian leaders.
From the Russian side, the leader of the delegation Vladimir Medinsky said the Russian side would study and present the proposal to President Putin. To prepare for the peace treaty, Medinsky later told the TASS news agency, "We have a long way to go."
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