Russia pledges to scale back military activity around Kyiv

Russia is to "dramatically" scale back military operations near the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv, it was reported on Tuesday.

The announcement, which included a pledge to reduce military activity around the city of Chernihiv as well, came as peace talks between Russia and Ukraine concluded in Istanbul, the first face-to-face negotiations since 10 March.

Alexander Fomin, Russia’s deputy minister of defence, said that to "increase mutual trust, and create the necessary conditions for future negotiations to agree and sign a peace deal with Ukraine," Moscow would "dramatically reduce military activities in the direction of Kyiv and Chernihiv, several times over," according to Russian news agency Tass.

It looks to be the first major concession Moscow has made since Russia invaded at the end of February.

Ukrainian negotiators confirmed they had proposed Ukraine would adopt neutral status in exchange for security guarantees, Reuters reported. Russia’s chief negotiator Vladimir Medinsky said: "These proposals will be considered in the near future, reported to the president, and our response will be given."

Turkey’s foreign affairs minister, Mevlut Cavusoglu, who mediated at the peace talks, said significant progress had been made.

Russia invaded Ukraine on 24 February, but has been met with fierce resistance and has failed to capture any major cities.