Russia claims headway in talks with Ukraine

Russia has decided to drastically cut its military activity focused on Kyiv and Chernihiv in Ukraine, its deputy defence minister said on Tuesday, after talks between Russian and Ukrainian negotiating teams in Istanbul, news agency Reuters reported.

“In order to increase mutual trust and create the necessary conditions for further negotiations and achieving the ultimate goal of agreeing and signing (an) agreement, a decision was made to radically, by a large margin, reduce military activity in the Kyiv and Chernihiv directions,” Alexander Fomin, the deputy minister, said.