Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky warned his people early on Saturday that withdrawing Russian forces were creating a “complete disaster” outside the capital, as they were leaving mines across the “entire region”, including around homes and bodies.
Zelensky’s warning was issued as the humanitarian crisis worsened in the besieged city of Mariupol, with Russian forces halting evacuations for a second day in a row.
Meanwhile, the Kremlin accused the Ukrainians of launching a “helicopter” attack on a fuel depot on Russian soil.
Ukraine has denied responsibility for the fiery explosion, but if Moscow’s claim is confirmed, it would be the first known attack of the war in which Ukrainian aircraft penetrated Russian airspace.
“Certainly, this is not something that can be considered as creating comfortable conditions for continuing talks,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, five weeks after Moscow began sending more than 150,000 troops across the Ukrainian border.
Russia continued to withdraw some of its ground forces from areas around Kyiv after saying earlier this week that it would reduce military activity near the Ukrainian capital and the northern city of Chernihiv.
In his nightly video address to the nation, Zelensky said: “They lay mines all over the lands. They mine houses, equipment, even the bodies of people who were killed. There are a lot of traps, a lot of other dangers.”
In return, the Ukrainian army announced that it had recaptured 29 residential areas in the Kyiv and Chernihiv regions.
However, Ukraine and its allies have warned that the Kremlin is not de-escalation to boost confidence at the negotiating table, as it claimed, but instead is resupplying and moving its forces to the east of the country, in preparation for a massive assault on the mostly Russian-speaking Donbass region in the east of the country, which Include Mariupol.