KYIV (Reuters) – Russian President Vladimir Putin promised not to carry out new military initiatives near Ukraine for the time being as a precursor to possible de-escalation, a French official said after Putin had talks with France’s Emmanuel Macron. The Russian leader, according to the French official, also agreed that troops taking part in a military exercise on Belarusian territory near Ukraine’s borders would be pulled back once those war games are over. Putin himself did not mention such concessions when he spoke to the media after his six hours of talks with Macron in the Kremlin late on…