The town of Brovary was told by its mayor that it had been liberated with Ukrainian forces working to oust the last Russian troops and clear the area of ”military equipment”. The latest blow, 12 miles east of Kiev, came as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy warned that Russian forces were creating “a complete disaster” by dropping mines on homes and corpses as they retreated. Russia has continued to withdraw some of its ground forces from areas around the capital, having said earlier this week that it would reduce military activity near the Ukrainian capital and the northern city of Chernihiv. But in his regular speech early Saturday morning, Zelensky said satellite towns around the city were being trapped indiscriminately. He said: “They are mining the whole territory. They are mining houses, mining equipment, and even the bodies of people who were killed. “There are a lot of travel cables, a lot of other dangers.” Russian forces leave traps in retreat, warns Ukrainian president – video Amid reports of rocket attacks on the central Ukrainian cities of Poltava and Kremenchuk on Saturday morning, Zelensky said the Russians were withdrawing “slowly but surely”. He urged Russian families not to let their young men enlist in the army as the Kremlin’s annual military conscription begins. “We do not need more dead people here. Save your children from becoming bad. Do not send them to the army. Do everything you can to keep them alive. “Keep them at home,” he said, adding that he believed Russia was trying to recruit conscripts from Crimea. The Ukrainian army announced on Friday that it had recaptured 29 settlements in the Kiev and Chernihiv regions. However, Ukraine and its allies have warned that the Kremlin is not de-escalating to boost confidence at the negotiating table, as it claims, but is instead refueling and moving its troops to the east of the country. These moves appear to be preparing for an intensified attack on the self-proclaimed Russian-speaking Donbass republics in eastern Ukraine, which includes Mariupol. Zelensky did not say anything about the last round of talks, which took place on Friday via video. In a round of talks earlier in the week, Ukraine said it would be willing to abandon an effort to join NATO and declare itself neutral – Moscow’s main demand – in exchange for security guarantees from many other countries. The invasion has left thousands dead and has displaced more than 4 million refugees from Ukraine. Mariupol, the devastated and besieged southern port city, has seen some of the worst of the war. His arrest would be a great reward for Russian President Vladimir Putin, giving his country an unbreakable land bridge to Crimea, which was seized by Ukraine in 2014. On Friday, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said it was unable to carry out an operation to evacuate civilians from Mariupol by bus. City officials said the Russians were blocking access to the city. “We do not see any real desire on the part of the Russians and their satellites to give the people of Mariupol the opportunity to evacuate to Ukrainian-controlled territories,” Petro Andriuschenko, an adviser to the mayor of Mariupol, wrote in a Telegram message. He said Russian forces “categorically do not allow any humanitarian cargo, even in small quantities, to enter the city.” About 100,000 people are believed to remain in the city, up from 430,000 before the war. Weeks of Russian bombing and street fighting have caused severe shortages of water, food, fuel and medicine. “We are running out of adjectives to describe the horror suffered by the residents of Mariupol,” said Juan Watson, a Red Cross spokesman. On Thursday, Russian forces blocked a 45-bus convoy trying to evacuate people from Mariupol and seized 14 tonnes of food and medical supplies destined for the city, Ukrainian authorities said. Zelensky said more than 3,000 people were able to leave Mariupol on Friday. She said she discussed the humanitarian catastrophe with French President Emmanuel Macron over the phone and with European Parliament President Roberta Metzola during her visit to Kyiv. “Europe has no right to remain silent about what is happening in our Mariupol,” Zelenski said. “The whole world must respond to this humanitarian catastrophe.”
