Russia’s deputy defence minister announced today that Russia will “drastically reduce” its military attacks around Ukrainian cities Kyiv and Chernihiv.
Financial Times’ journalist Max Seddon reported that Russia’s deputy defence minister said Moscow had chosen to “fundamentally cut back military activity in the direction of Kyiv and Chernihiv” in an attempt to “increase mutual trust for future negotiations to agree and sign a peace deal with Ukraine.”
The update followed negotiations between the embattled states, and comes on the back of several proposed terms including Ukraine adopting a neutral status in return for security guarantees, which would stop the country from joining any military alliances or hosting any military bases.
The negotiations also proposed a 15-year consultation period concerning the status of Crimea, which Russia annexed in 2014.
However, the proposal would only come to pass in the event of a total ceasefire.
“If we manage to consolidate these key provisions, and for us this is the most fundamental, then Ukraine will be in a position to actually fix its current status as a non-bloc and non-nuclear state in the form of permanent neutrality,” said Negotiator Oleksander Chaly in a statement on a Ukrainian television broadcast.
“We will not host foreign military bases on our territory, as well as deploy military contingents on our territory, and we will not enter into military-political alliances.”
“Military exercises on our territory will take place with the consent of the guarantor countries.”