Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan (right) greets the Russian and Ukrainian delegations ahead of their talks, in Istanbul, Turkey, on Tuesday. (TURKISH PRESIDENCY / AP)
Russia's military announced on Tuesday it will "fundamentally" scale back operations near Kyiv, Ukraine's capital, and a northern city, as talks brought a possible deal to end the grinding war into view.
Russian Deputy Defense Minister Alexander Fomin said the move was meant to increase trust in the talks after several rounds of negotiations failed to halt what has devolved into a bloody campaign of attrition.
Fomin is leading the Russian delegation, which also includes negotiator Vladimir Medinsky, in talks with Ukraine, which began on Tuesday morning in Istanbul, Turkey. They are the first face-to-face talks between the two sides since March 7.
The Ukrainian delegation is being led by David Arakhamia, the head of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky's political party in parliament.
Fomin said Moscow had 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.
Ukraine proposed adopting a neutral status with international guarantees to protect it from attack. Turkey, which hosted the talks, said the measures marked the most significant progress yet. Ukraine's military said it had noted withdrawals of some forces around Kyiv and Chernihiv.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has demanded the "demilitarization and denazification of the country," and that Ukraine adopt a neutral status and recognize that the Donbass region in the east and Crimea are no longer part of Ukraine.
Ahead of the talks, Zelensky said his country is prepared to declare its neutrality, as Moscow has demanded, and added that compromise might be possible over "the complex issue" of Donbass.
Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to Zelensky, said there are "intensive consultations going on regarding several important issues, the key among those is an agreement on international security guarantees for Ukraine."
Before the talks began the Kremlin denied Putin had considered using nuclear weapons in Ukraine.
During an interview with the TV channel PBS, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said "no" when an interviewer asked whether Putin had suggested in an earlier statement that he would use nuclear weapons if a third party got involved in the conflict in Ukraine.
"I don't think so. But Putin was quite bold in saying: 'Do not interfere. If you do, we have all the possibilities to prevent that and to punish all those who are going to interfere'," Peskov said.
"No one is thinking about using… even about the idea of using nuclear weapons," he said.
The Kremlin said Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich is not an official member of the Russian negotiating team, but is present at the talks in Turkey to "enable certain contacts" between the two sides.
The Kremlin also dismissed reports that Abramovich, who played an early role in peace talks, had been poisoned, saying they were untrue and part of an "information war".
According to The Wall Street Journal and the investigative outlet Bellingcat, which cited people familiar with the matter, Abramovich and Ukrainian peace negotiators suffered symptoms of suspected poisoning earlier this month after a meeting in Kyiv.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian forces have taken Irpin, a gateway to Kyiv's northwest, from Russian control, Ukraine's Interior Minister Denys Monastyrsky said on Tuesday.
Russia's Ministry of Defence said on Tuesday it destroyed a large fuel base near the settlement of Klevan in Rivne Oblast in western Ukraine using high-precision cruise missiles.
Agencies contributed to this story.
renqi@chinadaily.com.cn
