As Russian forces withdraw from Ukrainian capital region, retreating troops create ‘catastrophic’ situation for civilians by leaving mines around homes, in abandoned equipment and ‘even in the bodies of those killed “, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky warned on Saturday.
Ukraine and its Western allies have reported mounting evidence that Russia is withdrawing its forces around kyiv and building up its numbers in eastern Ukraine. Ukrainian fighters retook several areas near the capital after driving out the Russians, officials said.
This visible change did not mean that the country was facing a reprieve from more than five weeks of war or that the more than four million refugees who fled Ukraine would soon return. Mr Zelensky said he expects cities to come under missile and rocket strikes and the battle in the east will be intense.
“It is still not possible to resume a normal life, as before, even in the territories that we take back after the fighting. We have to wait until our soil is cleared, wait until we can assure you that there will be no further bombing,” the president said in his nightly video address, although his claims about Russian mines did not could be independently verified.
Besieged Mariupol
Moscow’s focus on eastern Ukraine has also kept the beleaguered southern city of Mariupol in Russian sights. The port city on the Sea of Azoz is located in the predominantly Russian-speaking region of Donbass, where Russian-backed separatists have fought Ukrainian troops for eight years. Military analysts believe Russian President Vladimir Putin is determined to take over the region after his forces failed to seize kyiv and other major cities.
The International Committee of the Red Cross planned to attempt Saturday to enter Mariupol to evacuate residents. The Red Cross said it could not carry out the operation on Friday because it had not received assurances that the route was safe. City authorities said the Russians had blocked access to the city.
The aid group said a team of three vehicles and nine Red Cross staff were heading to Mariupol on Saturday to help facilitate the safe evacuation of civilians. He said his team planned to accompany a convoy of civilians from Mariupol to another town.
“Our presence will place a humanitarian marker on this planned movement of people, giving the convoy additional protection and reminding all parties of the civilian and humanitarian nature of the operation,” a statement said.
The Mariupol City Council said on Saturday that 10 empty buses were heading to Berdyansk, a town 84 kilometers west of Mariupol, to pick up people who manage to get there on their own. About 2,000 people walked out of Mariupol on Friday, some on coaches and others in their own vehicles, city officials said.
The evacuees boarded about 25 buses in Berdyansk and arrived around midnight in Zaporizhya, a city still under Ukrainian control that served as a destination during previous ceasefires announced — then broken — to get the civilians and help Mariupol.
Among them was Tamila Mazurenko, who said she fled Mariupol on Monday and arrived in Berdyansk that night. Ms Mazurenko said she waited for a bus until Friday, spending a night sleeping in a field.
“I only have one question: why? she says of the ordeal her city is going through. We lived like normal people. And our normal life was destroyed. And we lost everything. I don’t have a job, I can’t find my son. »
Mariupol, which was surrounded by Russian forces a month ago, suffered some of the worst attacks of the war, including on a maternity hospital and a theater that housed civilians. Around 100,000 people are thought to remain in the city, down from a pre-war population of 430,000, and they face severe shortages of water, food, fuel and medicine.
Capturing the city would give Moscow an unbroken land bridge between Russia and Crimea, which it seized from Ukraine in 2014. But its resistance also took on symbolic meaning during the Russian invasion, Volodymyr said Fesenko, head of Ukrainian think tank Penta.
“Mariupol has become a symbol of Ukrainian resistance, and without its conquest, Putin cannot sit at the negotiating table,” Fesenko said.
An adviser to Mr. Zelensky, Oleksiy Arestovych, said in an interview with Russian lawyer and activist Mark Feygin that Russia and Ukraine had reached an agreement to allow 45 buses to go to Mariupol to evacuate residents ” in the next few days”.
Around 500 refugees from eastern Ukraine, including 99 children and 12 disabled people, arrived in the Russian city of Kazan by train overnight. When asked if he saw a chance to return home, Artur Kirillov, a resident of Mariupol, replied: “It is unlikely, there is no more city”.
In the outskirts of kyiv, signs of fierce fighting were everywhere in the wake of Russian redeployment. Destroyed armored vehicles of both armies left in the streets and fields along with scattered military machinery covered the ground.
Ukrainian forces have retaken the town of Brovary, 20 kilometers east of the capital, Mayor Ihor Sapozhko said in a televised address on Friday evening. Shops were reopening and residents were returning, but “still stand ready to defend” their city, he added.
“The Russian occupiers have now left virtually the entire Brovary district,” Sapozhko said. Tonight, the (Ukrainian) armed forces will work to clear the quarters (of the remnants) of the occupants, military equipment and possibly mines. »
Elsewhere in Ukraine
At least three Russian ballistic missiles were fired Friday night at the Odessa region near the Black Sea, regional chief Maksim Marchenko said. Ukraine’s military said the Iskander missiles failed to hit the critical infrastructure they targeted in Odessa, Ukraine’s largest port, and its navy headquarters.
Ukraine’s state nuclear agency on Saturday reported a series of explosions that injured four people in Enerhodar, a city in southeastern Ukraine that has been under Russian control since early March, as well as the nearby nuclear power plant of Zaporijjya.
Ukrainian officials also reported that the death toll from a Russian rocket strike Tuesday on a government building in Mykolaiv, a port city east of Odessa, had risen to 33, in addition to 34 injured. The confirmed death toll has steadily increased as the search and rescue operation continues.
International aid
As the war dragged on, the US Department of Defense said late Friday that it was providing an additional $300 million in weapons to Ukrainian forces, including laser-guided rocket systems, unmanned aircraft, armored vehicles, night vision devices and ammunition. Also included are medical supplies, field equipment and spare parts.
No information emerged on Saturday from the last round of talks between Russian and Ukrainian negotiators, which took place Friday by video. During a round of talks earlier in the week, Ukraine said it would be willing to drop its NATO bid and declare itself neutral — Moscow’s main demand — in exchange for security guarantees from several other countries.