Russia pledged to scale down fighting
\naround Kyiv and a second major city following peace talks on Tuesday that
\nUkraine’s leader said showed “positive” signs, but Western allies made clear
\ntheir doubts over Moscow’s intentions.<\/p>\n
Details filtering from the talks in Istanbul raised hopes after more than a
\nmonth of war that has left thousands dead and millions displaced.<\/p>\n
Kyiv’s negotiator David Arakhamia said there were “sufficient” conditions
\nfor President Volodymyr Zelensky and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin
\nto meet in a push to end Europe’s worst conflict in decades.<\/p>\n
On the Russian side, chief negotiator Vladimir Medinsky called the talks
\n“meaningful,” while the country’s deputy defence minister, Alexander Fomin,
\nreported progress on “the neutrality and non-nuclear status” of Ukraine —
\ntwo central Russian concerns.<\/p>\n
Russia, Fomin said, had decided to “radically, by several times reduce the
\nmilitary activity” around Kyiv and the northern city of Chernigiv.<\/p>\n
Zelensky himself sounded a note of cautious optimism following the day’s
\ntalks — though he said the “positive” signals “do not drown out the
\nexplosions or Russian shells” and vowed in a video address late Tuesday to
\nkeep up defence efforts.<\/p>\n
But the United States cast clear doubt on Moscow’s words, and vowed with
\nfellow Western powers to keep “raising the costs” on Russia.<\/p>\n
And by Tuesday evening Ukraine’s general staff — while confirming Russian
\nunits were withdrawing from the Kyiv and Chernigiv regions — said it was
\nmost likely a troop rotation intended to “mislead” Ukraine’s military.<\/p>\n
On the ground in the capital, air raid sirens could be heard ringing out
\nlate into the night, with residents ordered to proceed to shelters.<\/p>\n
Elsewhere in the country, meanwhile, the toll continued to climb, with at
\nleast 12 people killed by a Russian missile in southern Mykolaiv — adding to
\na toll estimated by Zelensky at 20,000 so far.<\/p>\n
– Offensive planned elsewhere? –<\/p>\n
Reinforcing the Ukrainian assessment, US officials said that while small
\nnumbers of Russian forces were indeed stepping back from Kyiv, the vast
\nmajority remained. “We’re not prepared to call this a retreat or even a
\nwithdrawal,” Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said, warning a “major offensive”
\nmay yet be imminent in other areas of Ukraine and that the threat to Kyiv was
\nnot over.<\/p>\n
A spokesman for British Prime Minister Boris Johnson echoed that message,
\nsaying: “We will judge Putin and his regime by his actions and not by his
\nwords”.<\/p>\n
US President Joe Biden spoke with Johnson and the leaders of France,
\nGermany and Italy, together vowing no let up in the strong economic sanctions
\nimposed on Moscow.<\/p>\n
“We’ll see if they follow through on what they’re suggesting,” Biden told
\nreporters following the call, when asked if he believed Russia was simply
\ntrying to buy time.<\/p>\n
The signals from Tuesday’s talks nonetheless sent European and US stock
\nmarkets up, while oil prices fell by five percent as supply fears eased, and
\nthe ruble surged 10 percent against the dollar.<\/p>\n
‘A whoosh, then a boom’ –<\/p>\n
Last weekend Moscow already signalled it was dialing back its war goals,
\nfocusing its military resources on capturing the eastern Donbas region.<\/p>\n
The Pentagon assesses that Russia badly underestimated Ukrainian
\nresistance, and that its offensive has stalled near Kyiv and other cities.<\/p>\n
In recent days, Ukraine’s fighters have notably recaptured the strategic
\nKyiv suburb of Irpin, and pushed back Russian forces from around Mykolaiv.<\/p>\n
But on Tuesday a Russian missile strike on a government building in the
\nsouthern city left at least 12 dead and 33 wounded, Ukrainian officials said.<\/p>\n
“I was having breakfast in my apartment,” Donald, 69, a retired Canadian
\npostal worker with Ukrainian residency told AFP. “I heard a whoosh, then a
\nboom and my windows rattled.”<\/p>\n
Another local resident, Viktor Gaivonenko, who was helping clean up the
\ndebris, said: “Putin is a bastard. That’s all there is to it”.<\/p>\n
– ‘Crime against humanity’ –<\/p>\n
While Ukraine’s forces are counterattacking in the north, they are
\nstruggling to retain control of the devastated southern port city of
\nMariupol.<\/p>\n
Russian forces have encircled the city and are conducting steady and
\nindiscriminate bombardment, trapping an estimated 160,000 people with little
\nfood, water or medicine.<\/p>\n
At least 5,000 people there have already died, and the full toll could be
\nas high as 10,000, according to one senior Ukrainian official.<\/p>\n
France, Greece and Turkey have been hoping to launch a mass evacuation of
\ncivilians from Mariupol within days, but French President Emmanuel Macron,
\nafter speaking with Putin Tuesday, said conditions for the operation were not
\nyet met.<\/p>\n
Calling the Mariupol siege a “crime against humanity” happening “in front
\nof the eyes of the whole planet in real time”, Zelensky urged allies to keep
\nthe sanctions pressure on Moscow “until this war is over.”<\/p>\n
In the latest round of diplomatic expulsions, Belgium, Ireland and the
\nNetherlands Tuesday announced a total of 42 diplomats would be told to leave.<\/p>\n
Responding tit-for-tat, Moscow said it was expelling 10 diplomats from
\nEstonia, Latvia and Lithuania.<\/p>\n
And it reiterated that it will only be accepting payment in rubles for gas
\ndeliveries to the European Union — after G7 ministers called this
\narrangement “unacceptable”.BSS\/AFP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Russia pledged to scale down fighting around Kyiv and a second major city following peace talks on Tuesday that Ukraine’s leader said showed “positive” signs, but Western allies made clear their doubts over Moscow’s intentions. Details filtering from the talks in Istanbul raised hopes after more than a month of war that has left thousands […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":24951,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24950","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-4","category-14"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/deshnews24.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24950","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/deshnews24.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/deshnews24.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deshnews24.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deshnews24.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=24950"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/deshnews24.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24950\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24952,"href":"https:\/\/deshnews24.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24950\/revisions\/24952"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deshnews24.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/24951"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/deshnews24.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=24950"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deshnews24.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=24950"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deshnews24.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=24950"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}