Russian Deputy Defense Minister Alexander Fomin said Moscow would “drastically” reduce its military presence in the directions of Kyiv and Chernihiv.
Russia’s deputy defense minister said Moscow would “drastically” reduce its military presence near Kyiv, the Ukrainian capital, as Russian and Ukrainian delegations met in Istanbul on Tuesday for a fresh round of peace talks.
Russian Deputy Defense Minister Alexander Fomin made the announcement in an on-camera statement from Istanbul broadcast on Russia-24, saying Moscow would also reduce its military presence in the direction of Chernihiv, north of Kyiv. The development suggested some progress may have been made during the day’s negotiations.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy had previously said he was willing to discuss his country’s neutrality to bring an end to the war “without delay.” However, over the weekend, he said he would not sacrifice his country’s territorial integrity. In a briefing Tuesday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said he would not comment on the progress of the talks until they were over.
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In an interview with PBS on Monday, Peskov clarified Moscow’s stance on the use of nuclear weapons, saying Russia would only consider it if there is a threat to the “existence of the state in our country.” But, he said, that “any outcome of the operation (in Ukraine), of course, is not a reason for usage of a nuclear weapon.”
On the ground, the British defense ministry said, Ukrainian forces were seeing “some success” with localized counterattacks to the northwest of Kyiv, including in Irpin, where local officials said the city had driven out Russian forces. The Russian forces still posed a significant threat to the capital through their strike capability, the ministry added.