The Russian President has been accused of “military, diplomatic and KGB games” with a pledge to de-escalate his war near Kvivr as part of peace moves.

Britain issued a strong warning not to “trust what is coming out of the mouth of Putin’s war machine” after Russian deputy defence minister Alexander Fomin said the Kremlin had decided to “radically reduce military activity in the Kyiv and Chernihiv directions” to boost trust at peace talks towards reaching an agreement to end the conflict.

The Ukrainian president in a late-night address to the nation, said: “We are hearing positive signals from the negotiating table but positive signals do not silence the explosions of Russian bombs.”

On the ground, the governor of Ukraine’s northern Chernihiv region said he saw no let-up in Russian attacks despite the promise by Moscow to scale down military operations there. “Do we believe in it (the promise)? Of course not,” said Viacheslav Chaus.

“The ‘decreased activity’ in the Chernihiv region was demonstrated by the enemy carrying out strikes on the city of Nizhyn, including air strikes, and all night long they hit Chernihiv.”

War is made up of lies and more lies. Inflated casualty figures, inflated achievements and especially lies about wanting peace. Does Putin want peace, or is it a smoke screen to make more advances? Lies make prayer more difficult. We are going to have to be on our toes.