Russian President Vladimir Putin says an agreement has been reached on a countrywide ceasefire plan for Syria, with Russia and Turkey to act as guarantors.
Syrian state news agency SANA said on Thursday that the ceasefire announcement excluded the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group and Jabhat Fateh al-Sham, the group formerly known as al-Nusra Front.
Putin said the truce was set to begin at midnight on Thursday (22:00 GMT) and would be followed by peace talks between Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's government and the opposition in the Kazakh capital Astana.
He also said that the Russian military had been ordered to scale down its presence in Syria, where it has been providing crucial support to Assad's forces.
He did not say how many troops and weapons would be withdrawn but said Russia would continue "fighting international terrorism in Syria" and would maintain its presence at both an air base in Syria's coastal province of Latakia and the naval facility in the Syrian port of Tartus.
"The agreements that have been reached are no doubt very fragile and they demand attention and follow-up in order to keep them and develop them. Nevertheless, it's a significant result of our work, the defence ministry, the ministry of foreign affairs, our partners in the region.
"Now we need to do everything for these agreements to work, so that negotiators would come to Astana and would begin to work on real peace process. I call on the Syrian government, armed opposition, all countries involved to support these agreements."
Sergei Shoigu, Russia's defence minister said the truce would include 62,000 opposition fighters across Syria, and that the Russian military has established a hotline with its Turkish counterpart to monitor compliance.
The Turkish foreign ministry confirmed the agreement and called on countries with influence on groups fighting in the country to provide the necessary support for the ceasefire to last.
"Russia and Turkey strongly support the truce and will monitor it together," the ministry said.
Al Jazeera's Natasha Ghoneim, reporting from Moscow, said three different documents had been signed in a trilateral agreement between Russia, Turkey and Iran.
"The first document lays out an agreement between the Syrian government and opposition groups on the ground. The second document includes measures designed to control the ceasefire and the third lays out what needs to happen next in order for there to be peace talks."
"It's still unclear which opposition groups have been involved in this process," our correspondent added.
"Just a day ago the negotiating arm of the largest group of rebels fighting under the banner of the Free Syrian Army said they had yet to be in contact with anyone and had not been invited to participate in talks."
The Syrian conflict started as a largely unarmed uprising against Assad in March 2011, but quickly developed into a full-on armed conflict.
Staffan de Mistura, the UN special envoy to Syria, estimated in April that more than 400,000 Syrians had been killed since 2011.
Calculating a precise death toll is difficult, partially owing to the forced disappearances of tens of thousands of Syrians whose fates remain unknown.
Almost 11 million Syrians - half the country's prewar population - have been displaced from their homes.
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