LVIV, Ukraine/KYIV OUTSKIRTS – Ukraine reacted with skepticism to Russia’s promise in negotiations to scale down military operations around Kyiv and another city as some Western countries expected Moscow to intensify its offensive in other parts of the country.

Talks took place in an Istanbul palace more than a month into the largest attack on a European nation since World War Two that has killed or injured thousands, forced nearly 4 million to flee abroad and pummeled Russia’s economy with sanctions.

The invasion has been halted on most fronts by stiff resistance from Ukrainian forces who have recaptured territory even as civilians are trapped in besieged cities.

“In order to increase mutual trust and create the necessary conditions for further negotiations and achieving the ultimate goal of agreeing and signing (an) agreement, a decision was made to radically, by a large margin, reduce military activity in the Kyiv and Chernihiv directions,” Russian Deputy Defense Minister Alexander Fomin told reporters.

He made no mention of other areas that have seen heavy fighting, including around Mariupol in the southeast, Sumy and Kharkiv in the east and Kherson and Mykolaiv in the south.

“Ukrainians are not naive people,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said late on Tuesday.

“Ukrainians have already learned during these 34 days of invasion, and over the past eight years of the war in Donbass, that the only thing they can trust is a concrete result.”

MAJOR OFFENSIVE POSSIBLE

Russia has started moving very small numbers of troops away from positions around Kyiv in a move that is more of a repositioning than a retreat or a withdrawal from the war, the Pentagon said on Tuesday.

“We all should be prepared to watch for a major offensive against other areas of Ukraine,” spokesman John Kirby told a news briefing. “It does not mean that the threat to Kyiv is over.”

Britain’s Ministry of Defense in an intelligence update said: “It is highly likely that Russia will seek to divert combat power from the north to their offensive in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions in the east.”

Reuters could not immediately verify the claims made by either side.

The Moscow-backed self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic in eastern Ukraine may consider joining Russia once it controls all of Ukraine‘s Donetsk region, its leader was quoted as saying. Kyiv has said any such move would have no legal basis.

Russia calls its assault a “special operation” to disarm and “denazify” Ukraine. The West says it launched an unprovoked invasion.

In Ukraine‘s besieged seaport Mariupol, thousands of civilians may have died, the head of the United Nations human rights mission in the country told Reuters on Tuesday.

Those who remain are suffering.

“We are eight people. We have two buckets of potatoes, one bucket of onions,” said Irina, an engineer, in her apartment where windows had been blasted out.

Elsewhere, Ukrainian forces have made advances, recapturing territory from Russian troops on the outskirts of Kyiv, in the northeast and in the south.

In the southern city of Mykolaiv, a missile blasted a hole through the main administrative building. Authorities said at least 12 people were killed and 33 injured. Read full story

Some analysts noted that Russia’s promise to reduce fighting mostly covered areas where it has been losing ground.

The general staff of the Ukrainian armed forces said Russia’s promise to curtail military operations in some areas was “probably a rotation of individual units and aims to mislead.”

The Russian military accused Ukrainian forces in cities under attack of using ceasefires to restore their combat readiness and set up firing points in hospitals and schools, Interfax news agency said.

DIPOLOMATIC PRESSURE

U.S. President Joe Biden will talk to the leaders of France, Germany, Italy and Britain on Tuesday to discuss the latest developments in Ukraine, the White House said.

French President Emmanuel Macron is scheduled to talk to Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday.Read full story

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and U.S. deputy national security adviser for economics, Daleep Singh, will both visit India, which has called for a ceasefire but has refused to explicitly condemn Moscow. Read full storyRead full story

The U.N. food chief warned on Tuesday that the war was threatening to devastate the World Food Programme’s efforts to feed some 125 million people globally because Ukraine had gone “from the breadbasket of the world to breadlines.” Read full story

PROPOSALS

Ukrainian negotiators said that under their proposals, Kyiv would agree not to join alliances or host bases of foreign troops, but would have security guaranteed in terms similar to “Article 5”, the collective defense clause of the transatlantic NATO military alliance.

They named Israel and NATO members Canada, Poland and Turkey as countries that may give such guarantees. Russia, the United States, Britain, Germany and Italy could also be involved.

The proposals, which would require a referendum in Ukraine, mentioned a 15-year consultation period on the status of Crimea, annexed by Russia in 2014.

The fate of the southeastern Donbass region, which Russia demands Ukraine cede to separatists, would be discussed by the Ukrainian and Russian leaders.

Kyiv‘s proposals also included one that Moscow would not oppose Ukraine joining the European Union, Russia’s lead negotiator Vladimir Medinsky said. Russia has previously opposed Ukrainian membership of the EU and especially of NATO.

Medinsky said Russia’s delegation would study and present the proposals to president Putin.

To prepare a peace agreement, Medinsky later told the TASS news agency, “We still have a long way to go”. – Reuters

SYDNEY – Heavy rains deluged Australia’s east coast on Wednesday, submerging roads and bridges, while tens of thousands fled their homes for the second time within weeks after fast-moving flood waters burst river banks and broke over levees.

Several towns in northern New South Wales already reeling after record floods over a month ago were pounded by an intense low-pressure system overnight. Some regions took a month‘s rainfall in under six hours, officials said.

Australia’s east coast summer has been dominated by the La Nina climate pattern, typically associated with greater rainfall, for the second straight year with rivers already at capacity after torrential rains. Sydney has already recorded 537 mm (21.1 inches) so far this month – its wettest March on record.

“Unfortunately overnight, our worst fears have been realised with significant heavy rainfall across already saturated landscapes,” New South Wales Emergency Services Minister Stephanie Cooke said during a media briefing.

In the northern New South Wales city of Lismore, among the worst impacted by record floods earlier in March, water levels in the city’s Wilsons river breached the levee height of 10.65 metres. Lismore, home to nearly 30,000 people, received around 400 mm (16 inches) of rain over a 24-hour period up to Wednesday morning, data showed.

There was no official warning that the levee had been breached after sirens malfunctioned, local media reported.

“Everything is falling apart in Lismore at the moment … second time in a month,” Mayor Steve Krieg told Nine Network.

The weather bureau forecast “bands of very localised heavier rainfall” to drop within a few hours on Wednesday, potentially leading to life-threatening flash floods with up to 200 mm predicted to pummel many regions.

Kevin Cocciola, a farmer near Lismore who lost his city office in the deluge early in March, said he has never seen successive major flooding events within “a matter of three weeks”.

“I hope it doesn’t get as high as it did three weeks ago but Lord only knows,” he told ABC television. – Reuters

China Evergrande Group 3333.HK said on Wednesday it will sell its Crystal City Project in the eastern city of Hangzhou for 3.66 billion yuan ($575 million) to two state-owned firms as the group’s liquidity issues dampen the progress of its projects.

The firm is selling the land-use and building ownership rights for the project, which is under construction, to Zhejiang Zhejian Real Estate Group and Zhejiang Construction Engineering Group, Evergrande said in a filing.

It will use the proceeds to repay construction fees of 920.7 million yuan owed to Zhejiang Construction Engineering and the rest for its own general working capital. The deal is expected to post a gain of about 216 million yuan.

Saddled with over $300 billion in liabilities, Evergrande has been struggling to repay suppliers, creditors and complete projects. State-owned enterprises have stepped in to help with the debt restructuring process and taken over some of its assets to quell market concerns about a disorderly collapse.

In a separate filing late on Tuesday, Evergrande said it had set up an independent committee to investigate how banks seized 13.4 billion yuan in deposits of its property services arm, Evergrande Property Services Group 6666.HK, that had been pledged as security for third party guarantees.

Preliminary investigation has found the pledge of the relevant deposits and the enforcement by banks took place in 2021, Evergrande said.

Shares of its unit China Evergrande New Energy Vehicle Group 0708.HK resumed trading on Wednesday and plunged up to 14.5%.

They have been suspended since last Monday pending news of the enforcement. But trading will be halted again on Friday per listing rules as the firm will not be able to publish its 2021 financial results by March 31.

Shares of Evergrande and Evergrande Property Services have both been suspended since last Monday. – Reuters