RUSSIA: Following ceasefire negotiations on Tuesday that Ukraine’s president described as “good,” Russia agreed to reduce violence around Kyiv and a second major city, but Western allies expressed misgivings about Moscow’s intentions.
After more than a month of fighting that has killed thousands and uprooted millions, details from the Istanbul talks have stirred hopes.
President Volodymyr Zelensky and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin will meet in a bid to end Europe’s deadliest crisis in decades, according to Kyiv’s negotiator David Arakhamia.
On the Russian side, lead negotiator Vladimir Medinsky described the negotiations as “significant,” while Alexander Fomin, the country’s deputy defence minister, hailed progress on Ukraine’s “neutrality and non-nuclear status,” two key Russian concerns.
Russia, according to Fomin, has decided to “significantly restrict military activities” around Kyiv and Chernigiv in the north.
Following the day’s negotiations, Zelensky expressed cautious optimism, saying that the “good” signals “do not drown out the explosions or Russian shells” and promising to keep up defence efforts in a video message late Tuesday.
The US, on the other hand, put doubt on Moscow’s words, vowing to keep “increasing the price” on Russia with other Western states.
While admitting Russian soldiers were leaving from the Kyiv and Chernigiv districts by Tuesday evening, Ukraine’s general command claimed it was most likely a troop rotation intended to “mislead” Ukraine’s military.
“A Russian missile struck a regional government building in the southern Ukrainian city of Mykolaiv on Tuesday, killing at least 12 people and injuring 33 others,” according to emergency officials.
The strike occurred shortly before 9 a.m. local time, devastating the whole core area of the nine-story skyscraper.
“The dead of 12 individuals have been found from the demolition site, and 33 people have been injured,” Ukraine’s emergency management agency said in a statement.
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