Ukraine ‘retakes whole Kyiv region’ as Russia looks east | Russia-Ukraine war

Ukraine’s defence ministry says its forces have seized control of the Kyiv region from Russian troops as officials warned that the departing soldiers were creating a “catastrophic” situation for civilians by leaving behind mines.

The announcement on Saturday marks the first time Ukraine has claimed control of the capital region since Russia launched its invasion on February 24.

“The whole Kyiv region is liberated from the invader,” Ukraine’s deputy defence minister, Hanna Malyar, wrote on Facebook.

There was no immediate Russian comment on the claim.

In total, Ukraine’s troops have retaken more than 30 towns and villages around Kyiv, according to officials. The recaptured towns bore the scars of five weeks of fighting, with destroyed armoured vehicles, military gear and dozens of bodies lying scattered over streets.

In Bucha, a town northwest of the capital, Ukrainian soldiers used cables to pull the bodies of civilians off the streets out of fear that Russian forces may have left them booby-trapped.

Bucha’s Mayor Anatoliy Fedoruk said authorities there have buried 280 people in a mass grave and said the victims included women as well as a 14-year-old boy.

“All these people were shot, killed, in the back of the head,” Fedoruk said.

On one street in Bucha, the AFP reported seeing at least 20 corpses, including one with his hands tied.

An open Ukrainian passport lay on the ground next to him, while two other people had a white cloth tied around their upper arms.

AFP said all were wearing civilian clothes – winter coats, jackets or tracksuit tops, jeans or jogging bottoms, and trainers or boots.

British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said she was appalled by the atrocities in Bucha and voiced support for the International Criminal Court’s inquiry into potential war crimes in Ukraine.

Russia denies targeting civilians and rejects war crimes allegations.

Mines

Since sending troops into Ukraine in what it calls a “special operation” to demilitarise its neighbour, Russia has failed to capture a single major city and has instead laid siege to urban areas, uprooting a quarter of Ukraine’s population.

Ukraine’s armed forces reported diminished Russian air and missile attacks on Saturday but said Russian troops retreating from near Kyiv were deploying mines.

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned in a video address: “They are mining all this territory. Houses are mined, equipment is mined, even the bodies of dead people.”

He did not cite evidence.

Ukraine’s emergencies service said more than 1,500 explosives had been found in one day during a search of the village of Dmytrivka, west of Kyiv.

Russia’s defence ministry did not reply to a Reuters news agency request for comment on the mining allegations.

Russia has depicted its drawdown of forces near Kyiv as a goodwill gesture in peace talks. Ukraine and its allies say Russia was forced to shift its…