Ukraine: skepticism after Russian announcements, despite progress in negotiations
Ukraine and its Western allies were skeptically awaiting a military withdrawal around kyiv and another major Ukrainian city on Wednesday, announced by Moscow after peace talks in which Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky nevertheless saw "positive" signs. ". "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," Zelensky said in a video message on Tuesday. And after about five weeks of war, thousands of victims and millions of refugees, caution was also required within the Ukrainian general staff. "The so-called + withdrawal of troops +, is probably a rotation of individual units, which aims to deceive the military command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine," he judged in a press release Tuesday evening. The warning sirens were heard several times in kyiv overnight from Tuesday to Wednesday before being canceled, a sign of the concern that still reigns in the Ukrainian capital after the announcements of the Russian forces. After 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 Cherniguiv" in the north of the country. But for the spokesman for the US Department of Defense, John Kirby, it is only a "repositioning" and not a "real withdrawal". "We can confirm that we have seen a small number of 'troops' starting to reposition," he said. But "we must be ready to see a major offensive against other areas of Ukraine" and "that does not mean that the threat against kyiv is over".
At the UN, Russia accused of having caused a "global food crisis"
Before the UN Security Council, Russia was accused on Tuesday of having provoked a "world food crisis" or even of putting people at risk of "famine" by having started a war against Ukraine, the "bread basket wheat of Europe". Russian President "Vladimir Putin started this war. He created this world food crisis. And he is the one who can stop it", hammered the number two of American diplomacy Wendy Sherman during a meeting of the Security Council devoted to the humanitarian situation in Ukraine. For the Deputy Secretary of State, "Russia and President Putin alone bear the responsibility for having waged war on Ukraine and for the consequences of this war on world food security". French Ambassador to the UN Nicolas de Rivière drove the point home: "Russia's aggression against Ukraine increases the risk of famine throughout the world. The populations of developing countries are the first to be affected ". And, said the French diplomat, "Russia will certainly try to make us believe that it is the sanctions adopted against it that are unbalancing global food security".

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