KYIV, Ukraine
Russia’s pledge to scale back some military operations in Ukraine drew skepticism even as the two nations planned to return Wednesday to talks that could produce a framework for ending the war that has imposed an increasingly punishing toll.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr
Zelenskyy said there was no reason to believe Russia’s announcement that it
would reduce military activity near Kyiv, the capital, as well as in the
northern city of Chernihiv, given what’s still happening on the ground.
“We can call those signals
that we hear at the negotiations positive,” he said in his nightly video
address to the Ukrainian people. “But those signals don’t silence the
explosions of Russian shells.”
It was a bitter reality check
in a rare moment of optimism five weeks into what has devolved into a bloody
war of attrition, with thousands dead and almost 4 million Ukrainians fleeing
the country.
Earlier Tuesday, Ukraine’s
delegation at the conference, held in Istanbul, laid out a framework under
which the country would declare itself neutral and its security would be
guaranteed by an array of other nations.
Moscow’s public reaction was
positive, and the negotiations were expected to resume Wednesday in Istanbul.
Russian Deputy Defense Minister
Alexander Fomin said Moscow has decided to “fundamentally ... cut back military
activity in the direction of Kyiv and Chernihiv” to “increase mutual trust and
create conditions for further negotiations.”
He did not spell out what that would mean in practical terms.
Zelenskyy said it was
Ukrainian troops who forced Russia’s hand, adding that “we shouldn’t let down
our guard” because the invading army can still carry out attacks.
“Ukrainians are not naïve
people,” he said. “Ukrainians have already learned during the 34 days of the
invasion and during the past eight years of war in the Donbas that you can
trust only concrete results.”
The U.S. and others also
expressed doubts about Russia’s intentions.
While Moscow portrayed it as a
goodwill gesture, its ground troops have become bogged down and taken heavy
losses in their bid to seize Kyiv and other cities. Last week and again on
Tuesday, the Kremlin seemed to lower its war aims, saying its “main goal” now
is gaining control of the mostly Russian-speaking Donbas region in eastern
Ukraine.
U.S. President Joe Biden,
asked whether the Russian announcement was a sign of progress in the talks or
an attempt by Moscow to buy time to continue its assault, said: “We’ll see. I
don’t read anything into it until I see what their actions are.”
U.S. Secretary of State Antony
Blinken suggested Russian indications of a pullback could be an attempt by
Moscow to “deceive people and deflect attention.”
It wouldn’t be the first time.
In the tense buildup to the invasion, the Russian military announced that some
units were loading equipment onto rail cars and preparing to return to their
home bases after completing exercises. At the time, Putin was signaling
interest in diplomacy. But 10 days later, Russia launched its invasion.
Western officials say Moscow
is now reinforcing troops in the Donbas in a bid to encircle Ukraine’s forces.
And Russia’s deadly siege in the south continues, with civilians trapped in the
ruins of Mariupol and other bombarded cities. The latest satellite imagery from
commercial provider Maxar Technologies showed hundreds of people waiting
outside a grocery store amid reports of food and water shortages.
“There is what Russia says and
there is what Russia does, and we’re focused on the latter,” Blinken said in
Morocco. “And what Russia is doing is the continued brutalization of Ukraine.”
Even as negotiators gathered, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s forces blasted a gaping hole in a nine-story government administration building in a strike on the southern port city of Mykolaiv, killing at least 12 people, emergency authorities said. The search for more bodies in the rubble continued.
“It’s terrible. They waited
for people to go to work” before striking the building, said regional governor
Vitaliy Kim. “I overslept. I’m lucky.”
Pentagon spokesman John Kirby
said the U.S. has detected small numbers of Russian ground forces moving away
from the Kyiv area, but it appeared to be a repositioning of forces, “not a
real withdrawal.”
He said it was too soon to say
how extensive the Russian movements may be or where the troops will be
repositioned.
“It does not mean the threat
to Kyiv is over,” Kirby said. “They can still inflict massive brutality on the
country, including on Kyiv.” He said Russian airstrikes against Kyiv continued.
Rob Lee, a military expert at
the U.S.-based Foreign Policy Research Institute, tweeted of the Russian
announcement: “This sounds like more of an acknowledgment of the situation
around Kyiv where Russia’s advance has been stalled for weeks and Ukrainian
forces have had recent successes. Russia doesn’t have the forces to encircle
the city.”
The meeting in Istanbul was
the first time negotiators from Russia and Ukraine talked face-to-face in two
weeks. Earlier talks were held in person in Belarus or by video.
Among other things, the
Kremlin has demanded all along that Ukraine drop any hope of joining NATO.
Ukraine’s delegation offered a
detailed framework for a peace deal under which a neutral Ukraine’s security
would be guaranteed by a group of third countries, including the U.S., Britain,
France, Turkey, China and Poland, in an arrangement similar to NATO’s “an
attack on one is an attack on all” principle.
Ukraine said it would also be
willing to hold talks over a 15-year period on the future of the Crimean
Peninsula, seized by Russia in 2014.
Vladimir Medinsky, head of the
Russian delegation, said on Russian TV that the Ukrainian proposals are a “step
to meet us halfway, a clearly positive fact.”
He cautioned that the parties are still far from reaching an agreement, but said: “We know now how to move further toward compromise. We aren’t just marking time in talks.”
In other developments:
— In what appeared to be a
coordinated action to tackle Russian espionage, the Netherlands, Belgium, the
Czech Republic, Ireland and North Macedonia expelled scores of Russian
diplomats.
— The head of the U.N. nuclear
watchdog agency arrived
in Ukraine to try to ensure the safety of the country’s nuclear
facilities. Russian forces have taken control of the decommissioned Chernobyl
plant, site in 1986 of the world’s worst nuclear accident, and of the active
Zaporizhzhia plant, where a building was damaged in fighting.
— Russia has destroyed more
than 60 religious buildings across the country in just over a month of war,
with most of the damage concentrated near Kyiv and in the east, Ukraine’s
military said.
— In the room at the Istanbul
talks was Roman
Abramovich, a longtime Putin ally who has been sanctioned by Britain and
the European Union. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the Chelsea soccer
team owner has been serving as an unofficial mediator approved by both
countries. But the mystery surrounding his role has been deepened by news
reports that he may have been poisoned during an earlier round of talks. -
AP
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