While Moscow presented its move as a goodwill gesture, it came as Russia’s advance appeared to have stalled on several fronts, with the Kremlin’s forces thwarted by stiff Ukrainian resistance, heavy losses, and logistical and tactical failings.
According
to report, Russia has pledged to drastically cut back its military activity in
northern Ukraine to help advance peace talks, but experts and western diplomats
expressed doubts that the move was more than a ploy to dress up setbacks on the
ground.
Russia’s
deputy defence minister, Alexander Fomin, said after talks in Istanbul on
Tuesday that Moscow wanted to “increase mutual trust, create the right
conditions for future negotiations and reach the final aim of signing a peace
deal with Ukraine”, and that the Kremlin would “radically reduce military
activity in the direction of Kyiv and Chernihiv”.
Volodymyr
Zelenskiy said in a video address early on Wednesday: “We can say the signals
we are receiving from the talks are positive but they do not drown out the
explosions of Russian shells.
“The
Russian army still has significant potential to continue attacks against our
state,” he added. “Therefore we are not reducing our defensive efforts.”
Having
failed to seize the Ukrainian capital and force an early capitulation, Moscow
said last week it was shifting its focus to expanding the territory held by
pro-Russia separatists in the eastern Donbas region. The defence minister,
Sergei Shoigu, said hours before the talks the “main goal” was now the
“liberation” of Donbas.
The US
secretary of state, Antony Blinken, said he had not seen anything indicating
that talks were progressing in a “constructive way” and suggested Russian
indications of a pullback could be an attempt by Moscow to “deceive people and
deflect attention”.
Speaking
on a visit to Morocco, Blinken said that there was “what Russia says, and what
Russia does, and we’re focused on the latter. What Russia is doing is the
continued brutalisation of Ukraine.”
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