Russia has announced it will "drastically reduce" military combat operations in two key areas of Ukraine "to boost mutual trust" in peace talks.
If you break the jackpot, xo wallet you'll be paying twice as much money. How to play slots online?
The decision to scale back operations around the capital, Kyiv, and the northern city of Chernihiv is the first sign of tangible progress.
But it is unclear how extensive any reduction in military activity might be, and Ukraine remains sceptical.
Russia had already refocused its campaign on Ukraine's eastern regions.
It has suffered a series of setbacks to the north-west of the capital, Kyiv, and is also seeking to capture a land corridor which stretches along the south coast to the Russian border.
President Volodymyr Zelensky, however, said he saw no reason to believe the words of some Russian representatives.
"We can say that the signals... are positive, but those signals do not drown out the explosions or Russian shells," he said in a video address late Tuesday.
Officials in Washington said they had already seen the Russians draw away from Kyiv, but they were still pounding the capital with air strikes . The US said it had little confidence that the announcement marked any significant shift or meaningful retreat.
The US had not seen "signs of real seriousness" from Russia in pursuing peace talks, said Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who pointed to the continued "brutalisation" of Ukraine's people.
During the talks in the Turkish city of Istanbul, Ukraine proposed to become a neutral state in exchange for security guarantees. A key aim of Russia's invasion was to stop Ukraine joining the Nato alliance and Russian officials said the talks had moved to a practical stage.
