Immediately after the Russia-Ukraine talks adjourned in Istanbul yesterday, Russian Deputy Defense Minister Alexander Fomin announced a decrease in Russian military activity in the directions of Kyiv and Chernihiv. “Due to the fact that the talks on preparing an agreement on Ukraine’s neutrality and non-nuclear status as well as on providing Ukraine with security guarantees are moving to the practical sphere, considering the principles discussed during the meeting today, in order to bolster mutual confidence and create the necessary conditions for the further talks and the achievement of the final goal—the coordination and the signing of the aforementioned agreement—the Russian Defense Ministry has made a decision to cardinally, several-fold decrease the military activity in the direction of Kyiv and Chernihiv,” he said, reported TASS. “We are proceeding from the premise that Kyiv will make corresponding basic decisions and conditions should be created for the further normal work,”
Prior to Fomin’s statement, Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said in a conference call that “the Russian armed forces will continue the special military operation until the goals set are achieved.” He said that “overall, the main goals of the first stage have been accomplished. The combat potential of the Ukrainian armed forces has significantly decreased which allows us to focus the main attention and main efforts on achieving the main goal—the liberation of Donbas.”
Among other things, Shoigu reported the following:
