Russia has begun withdrawing forces from around Ukraine's capital Kyiv in what the US assesses to be a "major strategic shift", a senior US official told CNN on Tuesday. The comments from the US official follow an announcement by the Russian Defense Ministry earlier in the day where it said it would "scale down" operations around northern Ukrainian cities Kyiv and Chernihiv in order to foster more constructive conditions for negotiations. Russia has in recent days hinted towards a strategic shift by a change in their language regarding the war and a placing of more emphasis on the "liberation" of Ukraine's Eastern Donbass region.