UPDATED: Kyiv mayor says big battles being fought near Ukrainian capital
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April 1 (Reuters) – “Huge” battles are being fought to the north and east of Kyiv, the mayor of the Ukrainian capital said on Friday.
“The risk of dying (in Kyiv) is pretty high, and that’s why my advice to anyone who wants to come back is: Please, take a little bit more time,” Mayor Vitaliy Klitschko said, issuing a warning to residents who have fled the capital.
Kyiv’s regional governor said earlier on Friday that Russian forces were pulling back in some areas around the capital but strengthening its positions in others.
Ukrainian forces are pushing back Russian troops northeast and northwest of the capital Kyiv, an adviser to President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Friday.
Political adviser Oleksiy Arestovych said the encircled port city of Mariupol was still holding out after weeks of bombardment but Russian forces were now trying to encircle the northern city of Chernihiv.
Earlier, Russia is continuing to withdraw some of its forces from Ukraine’s northern Kyiv region and they are heading towards Belarus, the local governor said on Friday.
“We are observing the movement of joint (Russian) vehicle columns of various quantities,” Governor Oleksandr Pavlyuk wrote on the Telegram messaging app.
He said Russian forces had left the village of Hostomel, which is next to an important, but was digging in at the town of Bucha. Reuters was unable to verify the information.
Russian forces are also withdrawing from the Chernihiv region of northern Ukraine but have not yet left entirely, the local governor said in a video address on Friday.
“Air and missile strikes are (still) possible in the region, nobody is ruling this out,” Governor Viacheslav Chaus said, adding that Ukrainian forces were entering and securing settlements previously held by Russian troops.
Chaus said it was still too early for Ukrainian forces in the Chernihiv region to let their guard down as Russian troops “are still on our land.” Russia said on Tuesday it would scale down operations in the Chernihiv and Kiev regions.
A Ukrainian soldier poses for photos next to a destroyed Russian helicopter, with the letter ‘Z’, the Russian invasion symbol, in the recaptured by the Ukrainian army Mala Rohan village, near Kharkiv, northeast Ukraine,. Mala Rohan and the area around had recently been recaptured by the Ukrainian army from Russian forces. Russian troops entered Ukraine on 24 February resulting in fighting and destruction in the country, and triggering a series of severe economic sanctions on Russia by Western countries. EPA-EFE/ROMAN PILIPEY
