The governor of Ukraine’s Chernihiv region says there is no let-up in attacks by Russia, despite its pledge to reduce military activity there.
The governor, Viacheslav Chaus, took to the Telegram messaging app to denounce Russia’s promise.
“Do we believe in it? Of course not,” he said, adding Russia had bombarded Chernihiv “all night long”.
On Tuesday, Russia said it would cut back operations around Chernihiv and the capital, Kyiv.
Russia’s deputy defence minister, Alexander Fomin, said the country would “radically, by several times reduce the military activity” in an effort to “boost mutual trust” in peace talks.
Delegations from Moscow and Kyiv held three hours of discussions in Istanbul on Tuesday aimed at bringing to a close more than a month of fighting in Ukraine.
Ukraine said it had proposed to become a neutral state in exchange for security guarantees. A key aim of Russia’s invasion was to stop Ukraine from joining the Nato alliance and Russian officials said the talks had moved to a practical stage.
Russia’s pledge to cut back military activity was met with scepticism. “Ukrainians are not naive people,” President Volodymyr Zelensky said in an overnight video address.
Mr Zelensky said that initial signs from the peace talks were “positive”, but added that they did not “drown out” the explosions of Russian shells.
Other countries also reacted with caution. US President Joe Biden said: “I don’t read anything into it until I see what their actions are.”
Leaders from UK, France, Germany and Italy also urged the West not to drop its guard against Russia.
In his comments on Telegram, Mr Chaus said Russian forces had been “carrying out strikes on [the city of] Nizhyn, including airstrikes, and all night long they hit [the city of] Chernihiv”.
The BBC has not been able to confirm this independently.
The mayor of Chernihiv city, Vladyslav Atroshenko, said Russia’s pledge to ease its assaults on Kyiv and Chernihiv would be good news if it could be trusted.
He told the BBC that as recently as Tuesday, “inhuman artillery shelling of several residential areas of the city took place, where about 35 people were hospitalised, where people lost their legs and some people were killed”.
Air raid sirens sounded in Kyiv in the early hours of Wednesday, hours after Russia said it would withdraw some troops from around the capital.
US and Ukrainian officials say Russia is continuing to reposition forces away from Kyiv, probably as part of an effort to refocus on eastern regions.
Source: BBC
