Ukraine

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — As Russian forces pull back from Ukraine’s capital region, retreating troops are creating a “catastrophic” situation for civilians by leaving mines around homes, abandoned equipment and “even the bodies of those killed,” President Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned Saturday.

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.

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Talks to stop the fighting in Ukraine resumed Friday, as another desperate attempt to rescue civilians from the shattered and encircled city of Mariupol failed and Russia accused the Ukrainians of a cross-border helicopter attack on a fuel depot.

The governor of Russia’s Belgorod region, Vyacheslav Gladkov, said a fiery raid on Russian soil by two helicopter gunships left two people wounded, though state oil company Rosneft denied anyone was hurt.

Kyiv, Apr 1 (AP) Russian troops left the heavily contaminated Chernobyl nuclear site early Friday after returning control to the Ukrainians, authorities said, as eastern parts of the country braced for renewed attacks and Russians blocked another aid mission to the besieged port city of Mariupol.

Ukraine's state power company, Energoatom, said the pullout at Chernobyl came after soldiers received significant doses of radiation from digging trenches in the forest in the exclusion zone around the closed plant. But there was no independent confirmation of that.

Kyiv, Apr 1 (AP/PTI) Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he has stripped two generals of their military rank.

Zelenskyy said something prevented them from determining where their homeland was and they violated their military oath of allegiance to the Ukrainian people.

According to Zelenskyy, one of the generals had headed internal security at the SBU, the main intelligence agency.

DONETSK, March 31. /TASS/: Head of the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) Denis Pushilin has ordered the formation of a city administration in Mariupol, according to a decree published on the DPR head’s website on Thursday.

"A local administration of the Donetsk People’s Republic is to be formed in the city of Mariupol," the document reads.

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — The Ukrainian president said his country’s defense against the Russian invasion is at a “turning point” and again pressed the United States for more help in the hours after the Kremlin’s forces reneged on a pledge to scale back some of their operations.

MALA ROHAN/NEAR IRPIN, Ukraine, March 30 (Reuters) - Russian forces bombarded the outskirts of Kyiv and a besieged city in northern Ukraine on Wednesday, a day after promising to scale down operations there in what the West dismissed as a ploy to regroup by invaders suffering heavy losses.

Nearly five weeks into an invasion in which it has failed to capture any major cities, Russia had said on Tuesday it would curtail operations near Kyiv and the northern city of Chernihiv "to increase mutual trust" for peace talks.

KIEV, March 30 (Xinhua) -- Ukraine established three humanitarian corridors on Wednesday, Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said on Telegram.

Two corridors were set up to allow Ukrainian civilians to flee the cities of Melitopol and Energodar in the southern Zaporizhzhia region, which were captured by Russia's forces, Vereshchuk said.

Another humanitarian route was established in the eastern Donetsk region to evacuate people from the city of Mariupol, where active hostilities are underway, she added.

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russia’s pledge to scale back some military operations in Ukraine drew skepticism even as the two nations planned to return Wednesday to talks that could produce a framework for ending the war that has imposed an increasingly punishing toll.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said there was no reason to believe Russia’s announcement that it would reduce military activity near Kyiv, the capital, as well as in the northern city of Chernihiv, given what’s happening on the ground.

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russia announced Tuesday it will “fundamentally” scale back military operations near Ukraine’s capital and a northern city, as talks to end the grinding war brought the outlines of a possible deal into view.

Deputy Defense Minister Alexander Fomin said the change on the battlefield was meant to increase trust at the talks after several rounds of negotiations failed to halt what has devolved into a bloody campaign of attrition.

The announcement was met with skepticism from the U.S. and others.