Russia's announcement that it would "drastically" scale down its military presence near the Ukrainian capital has triggered fears among pro-war factions at home that Russia is giving up on its goals.

Russian Deputy Defense Minister Alexander Fomin made the announcement Tuesday following Russian-Ukrainian peace talks in Istanbul, saying the decision was made in an effort to "increase mutual trust" and create conditions for a peace deal.
Vladimir Medinsky, the head of the Russian delegation, said Moscow would scale down its operations to the north of Kyiv and in the northern city of Chernihiv, 100 kilometers from the Russian border.  

The statements - the first signs of a possible de-escalation by Russia after more than a month of fighting - were met with frustration by pro-war Russians, who say the Kremlin's stated goals of "denazifying" and "demilitarizing" Ukraine are far from achieved.

"I myself was in a state of panic yesterday," Alexander Prokhanov, a nationalist writer who has supported Russia's war in Ukraine, told The Moscow Times of the news.  

"Today I feel better. The night was accompanied by heavy bombardment of Ukrainian targets throughout the country, from Lviv to Donetsk," said Prokhanov, who said he sees the war as an effort to address the wounds left open by the Soviet collapse.

But some are more sceptical of the danger of impending peace :

Even some of the Kremlin's most loyal propagandists, including state television anchor Vladimir Solovyov, were less than enthusiastic following the announcement.

"No one is going to give up. It is worth remembering that every time Putin announced the withdrawal of troops from Syria, our grouping there only increased," Solovyov said.