Biden said he would watch as Russian forces announced they were scaling back operations around Kiev

U.S. President Joe Biden said Tuesday that Western Allies are watching to see if Russia follows through on its promise to scale back attacks on Ukraine around the capital Kiev and the northern city of Chernikov.

“We’ll see if they deliver,” Mr. Biden said after speaking with the leaders of Britain, France and Italy. “There seems to be a consensus that we’ll just see what they come up with.”
Biden’s comments to reporters at the White House came after the Russian military said earlier Tuesday at the latest round of peace talks in Turkey that it would reduce its operations around Kiev and Chernikov.

Russian Deputy Defence Minister Alexander Formin said the move was aimed at “increasing trust” in the truce talks.
The Pentagon confirmed that a “small number” of Russian troops had begun to leave Kiev, but expressed more skepticism than Mr. Biden did.
“We believe this is a realignment, not an actual withdrawal,” Defense Department press secretary John Kirby told reporters at the Pentagon.
He added: “We do not believe that this announcement by the Russian Defense Ministry dramatically reduces the threat in the capital.”
The Russian advance has stalled recently because of fierce resistance from Ukrainian fighters.

Also Tuesday, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said Russian forces would focus on Donbas. The region includes luhansk and Donetsk, two regions that have declared independence from Ukraine. He said the first phase of “special military operations,” which include degrading Ukraine’s military capabilities, has been largely completed.

Russian President Vladimir Putin recognized luhansk and Donetsk in eastern Ukraine as independent states days before his invasion on February 24.

Speaking ahead of the talks in Istanbul, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan told Ukrainian and Russian negotiators that it was up to both sides to reach concrete agreements and “stop this tragedy”.

An aide to Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky says the terms of a possible cease-fire and security guarantees for Ukraine were discussed during Tuesday’s talks.
During a U.N. Security Council meeting Tuesday, Ukrainian Ambassador Sergei Kislitskya said Russia may be ready to move forward, but there is still a long way to go to achieve a sustainable cease-fire and a general easing of tensions.

“Only after the withdrawal of all Russian armed forces will it be possible to sign a treaty on security guarantees for Ukraine,” he said.
Kislitskya also urged countries to maintain pressure on Moscow through sanctions and to continue supplying Kiev with weapons.
Negotiations are expected to continue Wednesday.

The talks include Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich. He developed suspected symptoms of poisoning after attending a meeting in Kiev earlier this month, along with at least two senior members of the Ukrainian team. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Abramovich was attending Tuesday’s talks on an informal basis. Peskov said reports of the poisoning of Abramovich and two other negotiators were part of an “information war” waged by Western countries.

As the two sides held talks in Istanbul, a Russian air strike blasted a large hole in a government building in the Ukrainian port city of Nikolayev, trapping at least eight people in the rubble.
The top U.S. military commander in Europe says Russia has deployed a variety of weapons in its war against Ukraine, including hypersonic missiles.
Air Force General Todd Walters, commander of THE U.S. European Command and NATO supreme Allied Commander in Europe, told a Senate hearing Tuesday that most Russian hypersonic missiles are used to hit “specific military targets.”

Russia announced earlier this month that it had used a hypersonic missile to destroy a large weapons depot at Ivano-Frankovsk in western Ukraine.

In a video message posted on the social media platform Telegram, Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Irina Vereschuk said humanitarian corridors to transfer civilians from the war-torn region had opened after being suspended for a day because of what Kiev called possible Russian “provocations.”

The United Nations says Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has driven at least 10 million people from their homes and more than 3.8 million have fled the country.

Speaking on national television Monday, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmitro Kuleba said of the peace talks, “The lowest item will be humanitarian issues, and the highest item will be reaching a cease-fire agreement.”

In a video interview with Russian journalists Sunday, Zelensky said Ukraine is willing to accept neutrality as part of a peace deal, provided it is accompanied by third-party guarantees and a referendum.

Hours before the talks were to begin Tuesday, Zelensky insisted that Western sanctions against Moscow must be “sufficiently effective and severe” to have the desired effect on the Russian economy.
If Russia manages to “circumvent” sanctions, Zelensky said, “it creates a dangerous illusion for the Russian leadership that what they are doing can be sustained. And Ukrainians are paying with their lives. Thousands of lives.”

Meanwhile, a senior U.S. defense official told reporters that Ukrainian forces have taken control of troodyanets, a town near the northwestern city of Sumeh. In his speech Late Monday, Zelensky said Ukrainian forces have liberated the Kiev suburb of Ilpin.