Russian negotiator Vladimir Medinsky has hailed "meaningful" progress with Ukrainian representatives at peace talks in the Turkish city of Istanbul, over a month after Russia started military action in its neighboring country.
The discussions focused on the humanitarian situation in Ukraine's regions as well as Russia's demand that Ukraine become a neutral state, among other issues.
Russia has said that due to the progress made in the talks, it will "radically" reduce its military activity in northern Ukraine, including near the capital Kyiv.
After the face-to-face meeting in Turkey, Russian Deputy Defense Minister Alexander Fomin said talks on "the neutrality and non-nuclear status of Ukraine have moved into a practical field."
Fomin says Moscow has decided to "radically, by several times, reduce the military activity in the areas of Kyiv and Chernigiv."
Ukraine has called for an international agreement under which other countries would guarantee its security.
Ukrainian negotiator David Arakhamia told reporters the guarantee should resemble NATO's Article 5 which commits alliance members to defend each other.
Arakhamia said there were now "sufficient" conditions for a direct meeting between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Ukraine also proposed that Moscow should drop any opposition to it joining the European Union, Medinsky said that Russia will not be opposed to it.
"Today see that progress has been made in the meetings today. You have heard the statements, " said Turkish foreign minister Mevlut Cavusoglu.
"There has been agreement and understanding on some topics. The most significant progress has been made today since the beginning of the negotiations," he added.