Vladislav Atroshenko, the mayor of Chernihiv, said the Russians had lied and continued to strike hard at his city, which is less than 100 miles north of the country’s capital. Barracks on the outskirts of Kiev also continued, Ukrainian officials said, although Col. Oleksandr Motyuzyanyk, a spokesman for the Defense Ministry, said there were signs of troops moving away from the two cities. He said: “The General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces has noticed some partial movement of some enemy units from the areas of Kiev and Chernihiv, at the same time there is no mass withdrawal from these areas. “It’s time to dump her and move on. The enemy withdraws units that suffered the greatest losses to make up for them. “As far as we can see, the enemy has not abandoned its efforts to occupy or at least besiege the capital and Chernihiv.” The Ukrainian military says Russian troops are also stepping up their attacks around the eastern city of Izyum and the eastern Donetsk region, following the redeployment of some units from other areas. Russia’s Deputy Defense Minister Alexander Fomin said on Tuesday that Moscow wanted to “increase mutual trust, create the right conditions for future negotiations and reach the final goal of signing a peace agreement with Ukraine.” He added during talks in Istanbul that the Kremlin “will radically reduce military activity in the direction of Kiev and Chernihiv.” Authorities in Chernihiv estimate that some 400 people have died since the Russian-led invasion of Ukraine began on February 24, leaving people without electricity, gas or water. On Wednesday morning, Atroshenko said: “The night was exactly as we expected, this [everything Russia promised] is a lie from beginning to end, so tonight we had heavy bombardment at night. “And the Russians were trying to destroy all possible means to cross the Desna River to Kyiv.” Map Atroshenko, who urged Kyiv not to exchange pilots who had flown over Chernihiv for Ukrainian prisoners of war, said there was no evidence that he had left the city in the past 24 hours. He said: “The locals are living in a real humanitarian crisis for weeks without electricity, without heating, without water, only in some areas of the city there is gas. [natural gas, not petrol]. Thousands of buildings are destroyed. Our district, Liotka, was particularly heavily bombed yesterday, where a few people died and dozens were injured. “Have you ever met liars in your life? What is hidden behind their lies? They are just liars. They are constantly lying! [Sergei] Lavrov [the Russian foreign minister] lies that this is just an “operation”, the Russian army lies when they say that this “operation” is against the armed forces of Ukraine, and we say that they deliberately destroy civilians, deliberately drop bombs on civilians in broad daylight “They are bombing us with 120 mm mines and you know that this is not an accurate weapon, it is just bombing the whole city.” Russia says it will “radically reduce military activity” around Kyiv and Chernihiv – video The Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Dominique Raab, has stated that the Kremlin’s claims of resignation should be taken seriously. He said: “We judge the Russian military machine by its actions, not by its words. There is obviously skepticism that he will regroup to attack again. “The door to diplomacy will always be ajar, but I do not think you can trust what comes out of his mouth. [Vladimir] “Putin’s war machine.” Oleskandr Markushyn, mayor of Irpin, a city visiting Kyiv a few miles from the fierce battlefield, said the city was now “100% controlled by our military and territorial defense” but that Russian attacks continued and 50 Ukrainian soldiers had died in battle. He said: “We are constantly bombarded from Bucha by Vorzel, from Grad, mortars, heavy artillery and sometimes bombed by tanks and rifles, but the whole perimeter of the city is controlled by our army and there are no Russian invaders in the city. us. “There are still a lot of locals who did not want to leave the city – 30% of the total area was occupied.” He added: “[The Russians] tanks were used to roll over corpses of our Ukrainians. We will never forget that. “The bodies were buried in yards and I think about 200 to 300 people died. Many people are in the rubble. We need time to find the corpses. “We see that 50% of the city has been destroyed, critical infrastructure has been destroyed.” Meanwhile, Ukrainian officials claimed that Russia was struggling to maintain its fighting spirit and that troops from the 26th Panzer Regiment of the 47th Panzer Division were trying to relocate outside the war. It was also claimed that Russian units were being transported from the occupied territories of Georgia to the territory of Ukraine in order to be recruited for Russia. In the occupied eastern part of Luhansk, Russia is said to be preparing for a new wave of mobilization from April 1 this year.
