Russia says it will scale back its assaults on Kyiv and Chernihiv during peace talks with Ukraine

• Russia said it would reduce assaults on Kyiv and Chernihiv to help with peace talks with Ukraine.
• The deputy defense minister said Russia would "drastically reduce military activity" there.

Russia's defense ministry announced plans to scale back its assaults on the Ukrainian cities of Kyiv and Chernihiv during peace negotiations.

They came as Russian and Ukrainian representatives met for a new round of talks in Turkey on Tuesday. Negotiations so far have made little progress.

"Taking into account the principles discussed during today's meeting ... in order to increase mutual trust and create the necessary conditions for further negotiations and achieving the ultimate goal of agreeing on the signing of the above [peace] agreement, a decision was made to drastically reduce military activity in the Kyiv and Chernihiv direction," Deputy Defense Minister Alexander Fomin told reporters, according to the state-run Ria news agency.

Russian forces, which invaded Ukraine on February 24, had long been trying to close in on the capital city of Kyiv, but were struggling to do so in the face of Ukrainian resistance.

Chernihiv, a city in northern Ukraine, lies along Russia's route from Belarus to Kyiv. Chernihiv has been almost surrounded by Russian troops, leaving its citizens without power and water.

Residential buildings in both cities have been destroyed.

Kyiv has remained under Ukraine's control but faced fatal and destructive airborne attacks and shelling in the past few weeeks.

Ukraine recently retook control of two areas near Kyiv — Makariv and Irpin — from Russian forces.