LONDON (Reuters) – Britain wants to see a full withdrawal of Russian forces from Ukraine and will judge tentative steps towards a possible peace deal by actions rather than words, Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s spokesman said on Tuesday.
Asked if Johnson was encouraged by Russia’s promise to scale down military operations around Kyiv and northern Ukraine as a confidence-building step, Johnson’s spokesman said “we will judge Putin and his regime by his actions, not by his words”.
“There has been some reduction in Russian bombardment around Kyiv, largely because Ukrainian forces have been successfully pushing back the Russian offensives in the northwest of the city,” he told reporters.
“But fighting continues. There’s heavy bombardment in Mariupol and other areas. So we don’t want to see anything less than a complete withdrawal of Russian forces from Ukrainian territory.”
(Reporting by Alistair Smout; editing by Michael Holden)
