Military activity in the areas near Kyiv and Chernihiv will be reduced to increase mutual trust and create the necessary conditions for further negotiations, Deputy Defense Minister of the Russian Federation, Colonel General Alexander Fomin told reporters following Russian-Ukrainian talks in Istanbul.

"Due to the fact that negotiations on the preparation of an agreement on the neutrality and non-nuclear status of Ukraine, as well as on the provision of security guarantees to Ukraine, are moving into practice, taking into account the principles discussed during today's meeting, in order to increase mutual trust and create necessary conditions for further negotiations and achieving the ultimate goal of agreeing and signing the above agreement, the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation made a decision to radically, at times, reduce military activity in the areas near Kyiv and Chernihiv," he said.