Ukrainian forces retake areas near Kyiv amid fear of Russian mines
ITV News Correspondent Geraint Vincent has the latest on the war in Ukraine
Ukrainian troops moved cautiously to retake territory north of the country’s capital on Saturday, using cables to pull the bodies of civilians off the streets in one town out of fear that Russian forces might have booby-trapped them before leaving.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned in his nightly video address hours earlier that departing Russian troops were creating a “catastrophic” situation for civilians by leaving mines around homes, abandoned equipment and “even the bodies of those killed.”
Ukraine and its Western allies reported mounting evidence of Russia withdrawing its forces from around Kyiv and building its troop strength in eastern Ukraine. Ukrainian fighters reclaimed several areas near the capital after forcing the Russians out or moving in after them, officials said.
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Ukraine’s deputy prime minister, Iryna Vereshchuk, said 765 Mariupol residents reached Zaporizhzhia on Saturday in private vehicles.
Mariupol, which was surrounded by Russian forces a month ago, has suffered some of the war’s worst attacks, including on a maternity hospital and a theatre that was sheltering civilians. Around 100,000 people are believed to remain in the city, down from a pre-war population of 430,000, and they are facing dire shortages of water, food, fuel and medicine. The city’s capture would give Moscow an unbroken land bridge from Russia to Crimea, which it seized from Ukraine in 2014. But its resistance has also has taken on symbolic significance during Russia’s invasion, said Volodymyr Fesenko, head of the Ukrainian think-tank Penta.
On the outskirts of Kyiv, signs of fierce fighting were everywhere in the wake of the Russian redeployment. Destroyed armored vehicles from both armies left in streets and fields, while scattered military gear covered the ground next to an abandoned Russian tank.
Ukrainian forces recaptured the city of Brovary, about 12 miles (20 kilometres) east of the capital, Mayor Ihor Sapozhko said Friday night. Shops were reopening and residents were returning but “still stand ready to defend” their city, he added.
Ukraine’s state nuclear agency reported a series of blasts on Saturday that injured four people in Enerhodar, a city in southeastern Ukraine that has been under Russian control since early March, along with the nearby Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant. Ukraine’s human rights ombudsman said on Telegram that the four were badly burned when Russian troops fired light and noise grenades and mortars at a pro-Ukraine demonstration.