Talks between Russia and Ukraine resumed via video link on Friday.
The head of the Russian delegation, Vladimir Medinsky, posted a photo of the ongoing talks. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s office confirmed to The Associated Press that negotiations have resumed.
Friday’s talks come three days after the last meeting in Turkey between the Russian and Ukrainian delegations.
Mr. Medinsky said that “our positions on Crimea and Donbass are unchanged”.
Russia annexed the Crimean peninsula in southern Ukraine in 2014. Donbas is the predominantly Russian-speaking industrial region where Moscow-backed separatists have been fighting Ukrainian forces since 2014.
Chernobyl
Russian troops left the heavily contaminated Chernobyl nuclear site early on Friday after handing control over it to the Ukrainians, authorities said, as residents in parts of eastern Ukraine braced for further attacks and awaited blocked deliveries of food and other humanitarian relief.
Ukraine’s state-owned electricity company Energoatom said the Chernobyl pullout came after soldiers received “significant doses” of radiation while digging trenches in the forest in the exclusion zone around the closed plant. The International Atomic Energy Agency said it could not independently confirm the exposure claim.
The head of the UN’s nuclear watchdog said he would lead a team to Ukraine’s decommissioned Chernobyl power plant “as soon as possible”.
Rafael Mariano Grossi wrote on Twitter that the IAEA’s “assistance and support” mission in Chernobyl “will be the first in a series of nuclear safety and security missions in Ukraine”.
Mr. Grossi’s comments followed his visits to Ukraine and then Russia this week. He did not elaborate on his plans or give a more specific timeline. He was due to hold a press conference in Vienna later on Friday.
Energoatom gave no details on the condition of the soldiers it said were exposed to radiation and did not say how many were affected.
Edwin Lyman, a nuclear expert with the US-based Union of Concerned Scientists, said it was “unlikely” that large numbers of soldiers would develop severe radiation sickness, but that it was impossible to know for sure without further details.
In addition to Chernobyl concerns, nine of Ukraine’s 15 operational reactors are currently in operation, including two at Russia’s Zaporizhja facility, the IAEA said.
Attack in Russia?
In what would be the first such attack, if confirmed, the governor of Russia’s Belgorod region accused Ukraine of hitting an oil depot with helicopter gunships on Friday.
The depot run by Russian energy giant Rosneft is located about 35 kilometers north of the Ukraine-Russia border. The attack set the facility on fire and two people were injured, according to Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov.
“The fire at the oil depot occurred as a result of an airstrike by two helicopters of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, which entered the territory of Russia at low altitude,” the governor wrote on the application of Telegram messaging.
It was not immediately possible to verify the claim or the images circulating on social media of the alleged attack. Russia has previously reported bombings from Ukraine, including an incident last week that killed a military chaplain, but not an incursion of its airspace.
Elsewhere, Ukrainian forces have taken over the villages of Sloboda and Lukashivka, located south of the besieged city of Chernihiv and along one of the main supply routes between the city and the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, according to the ministry. British Defence.
Ukraine also continued to carry out successful, but limited, counterattacks east and northeast of Kyiv, the ministry said.
Russian forces have subjected both Chernihiv and Kyiv to continuous air and ground strikes, even though Moscow announced on Tuesday that it planned to reduce military activity in those areas.
Western officials have warned there are growing indications that Russia is using its de-escalation rhetoric in Ukraine as a cover to regroup, resupply its forces and redeploy them for a strengthened offensive in the east of the country.
President Zelensky warned that Russian withdrawals from the north and center of the country were just a military tactic to strengthen themselves in preparation for further attacks in the southeast.
“We know their intentions,” Mr. Zelensky said in his nightly video address to the nation. We know they move away from the areas where we hit them to focus on other very important areas where it can be difficult for us. »
“There will be battles ahead,” he added.
Mr. Zelensky announced that he had demoted two generals from their military rank. He said that “something prevented them from determining where their homeland was” and that they “had violated their military oath of allegiance to the Ukrainian people”.
According to Mr. Zelensky, one of the generals had headed the internal security of the SBU, the main intelligence agency. He said the other general had been the head of the SBU in the Kherson region, the first major city to fall to the Russians.
Mr. Zelensky said nothing about the fate of the two generals, other than that they were demoted.
Australian aid
Following a call from Mr Zelensky when he addressed the Australian Parliament on Thursday, Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced that his country would send mine-resistant armored personnel carriers to Ukraine.
He said on Friday that four-wheel-drive Bushmaster vehicles, specifically requested by Mr. Zelensky, would be flown to Europe, but did not say how many would be delivered or when.
“We’re not just sending our prayers, we’re sending our weapons, we’re sending our ammunition, we’re sending our humanitarian aid, we’re sending all of that, our bulletproof vests, all of those things, and we’re going to send our armored vehicles, our Bushmasters too,” Mr. Morrison said.
Blocked convoy
In the beleaguered strategic port city of Mariupol, Russian forces on Thursday blocked a convoy of 45 buses trying to evacuate people after the Russian military agreed to a limited ceasefire in the area. Only 631 people were able to get out of the city by private car, according to the Ukrainian government.
Russian forces also reportedly seized 14 tons of food and medical supplies from a dozen buses trying to get to Mariupol, Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said.
The city was the scene of some of the worst suffering of the war. Tens of thousands of residents have managed to exit in recent weeks through humanitarian corridors, reducing the population from 430,000 before the war to around 100,000 last week. But continued Russian attacks have repeatedly thwarted aid and evacuation convoys.
Earlier this week, the Russians announced that they would drastically reduce military operations in areas around kyiv and the northern city of Chernihiv in order to build trust between the two sides and facilitate negotiations.
But on the outskirts of kyiv, regional governor Oleksandr Palviuk revealed on social media on Thursday that Russian forces had shelled Irpin and Makariv and that there had been battles around Hostomel. Mr Pavliuk reported Ukrainian counterattacks and Russian withdrawals around the eastern suburb of Brovary.
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg clarified that intelligence indicates that Russia is not reducing its military operations in Ukraine, but rather trying to regroup, resupply its forces and strengthen its offensive in Donbass.
“Russia has repeatedly lied about its intentions,” Stoltenberg said. At the same time, he said, the pressure is kept on Kyiv and other cities, and “we can expect further offensive actions bringing even more suffering”.
In recent days, the Kremlin, in an apparent shift in its war aims, said its “main objective” was now to take control of Donbass, which includes the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, including Mariupol.