A glimmer of hope. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has seen positive signs in the ongoing negotiations with Russia. “We can say that the signals we are hearing in the negotiations are positive, but they do not make us forget the explosions or the Russian shells”, said Tuesday, March 29, Volodymyr Zelensky in a video message. Following talks in Istanbul, Russian Deputy Defense Minister Alexander Fomin announced on Tuesday that Moscow would “radically reduce (its) military activity in the direction of kyiv and Chernihiv”, in the north of the country. Follow our live.
Skeptical Americans. For US Department of Defense spokesman John Kirby, this is just a “repositioning” and not of a “true withdrawal”. “We’ll see if they keep their word”, U.S. President Joe Biden also told reporters, shortly after meeting with the French, British, German and Italian leaders.
The calm is expected on the ground. A Russian strike hit Tuesday morning the building of the regional administration of Mykolaiv, a city near Odessa which has nevertheless experienced a respite in the bombardments in recent days. At least twelve people died and 33 others injured, according to a new report given by President Zelensky.
Discussion between Macron and Putin. Following a telephone exchange with Emmanuel Macron, Vladimir Putin made the surrender of the Ukrainian forces defending the city a condition for the evacuation of civilians from Mariupol. The French presidency, for its part, considered that the conditions for launching in the coming days a humanitarian operation to help the inhabitants of Mariupol “are not met at this stage”.