Despite Russia's vow to stop military operations, strikes on Ukraine's northern cities have continued, according to regional officials.

Russia announced on Tuesday that it will scale back operations in the Chernihiv and Kyiv areas in order to "increase mutual confidence" in peace negotiations.

The governor of the Chernihiv area, however, told the BBC that the attacks had continued overnight into Wednesday.

Ukraine also said that no large-scale army withdrawals have occurred.

Though there had been a partial withdrawal of soldiers from the areas of Kyiv and Chernihiv, a spokeswoman for Ukraine's armed forces, Oleksandr Motuzyanyk, stated that attempts to conquer, or at least surround, these towns had not been abandoned completely.

Russia's Deputy Defense Minister Alexander Fomin said on Tuesday that his country will "significantly restrict military activities" in the Kyiv and Chernihiv districts.

As peace negotiations proceed, Russia claims it will put a stop to the assault on Kyiv.
Putin wants Mariupol's submission in order to stop the shelling.
Meanwhile, UN Human Rights Commissioner Michelle Bachelet warned Russia's indiscriminate bombardment on inhabited regions of Ukraine "may amount to war crimes."

She claimed there were plausible claims that Russia had deployed cluster bombs in inhabited areas on many occasions while speaking to the Human Rights Council in Geneva, Switzerland, on Tuesday. An international convention prohibits the use of such weapons, but neither Russia nor Ukraine have ratified it.
Her agency has also confirmed 77 incidences in which medical institutions, including 50 hospitals, have been destroyed.

The Russian strikes are continuing.
"The entire night was quite stressful" in Chernihiv and the surrounding area, regional governor Viacheslav Chaus told the BBC.

"Nizhyn and Chernihiv were assaulted. Chernihiv is the most common. Parts of the civilian infrastructure were once again damaged."

"Chernihiv still lacks power, running water, and heating. It will be difficult to rebuild this infrastructure. Last night, none of the military buildings were attacked. The governor stated, "They continued to strike exclusively civilian infrastructure."

The BBC was unable to independently corroborate this, but locals in Chernihiv reported the battle was still going on.
"It was a difficult night," one local told the BBC. "We heard that there was violence in the outskirts, away from the city center, all night. Artillery could be heard. Tonight, however, there was no aviation."

Shelling was still going on Wednesday, according to another neighbor, albeit not as vigorously as it had been the night before.

The mayor of Chernihiv told CNN that Russian assaults on the city had escalated, and that 25 people had been injured in Wednesday's attacks.


Air raid sirens also sounded in Kyiv barely a few hours after the statement that Russian soldiers would be lowered surrounding the capital.

Mykola Povoroznyk, Kyiv's deputy mayor, claimed the capital had not been bombarded overnight, but gunfire had been heard from fights across the city.
Russia is continuing to relocate soldiers away from Kyiv, according to US and Ukrainian officials, most likely as part of a strategy to focused on eastern territories.

The decision comes after Ukrainian forces have made significant progress in recent days, retaking territory formerly held by Russian soldiers.

The mayor of Irpin, near Kyiv, said Ukrainian troops retook control of the town on Monday, and that between 200 and 300 people died in the town before it was retaken.

According to the Kremlin, there were no "breakthroughs" in Tuesday's peace negotiations between Russian and Ukrainian officials.
On Tuesday, delegations from Moscow and Kyiv met in Istanbul for three hours to discuss ending more than a month of combat in Ukraine.

Ukraine stated that it has offered to become a neutral state in exchange for security assurances. One of the main goals of Russia's invasion was to prevent Ukraine from joining NATO, and Russian officials stated the discussions had progressed to a practical stage.

The commitment by Russia to reduce military action was regarded with skepticism. In an evening video message, President Volodymyr Zelensky declared, "Ukrainians are not naive people."

Initial indicators from the peace negotiations, Mr Zelensky said, were "promising," but they did not "drown out" the bursts of Russian shelling.
Other nations reacted with caution as well. "I don't read anything into that until I see what their actions are," US Vice President Joe Biden remarked.

Leaders from the United Kingdom, France, Germany, and Italy also encouraged the West not to relax its anti-Russian stance.

Other recent advances include:

Russian President Vladimir Putin has stated that the bombardment of Mariupol, Ukraine's beleaguered city, will cease only when Ukrainian soldiers surrender.
In the midst of a financial dispute with Russia, Germany has issued a "early warning" about a probable gas supply disruption.
According to the latest UN numbers, more than four million people have fled Ukraine to avoid Russia's invasion.