Ukraine war: Kyiv claims Russia mining areas, firing on civilians | Top points
Russia-Ukraine war: The Ukrainian forces have claimed that Vladimir Putin's forces are making a ‘rapid retreat' from Kyiv and Chernihiv. This comes at a time when a former war crime prosecutor has urged the International Criminal Court to issue an arrest warrant against the Russian president.
The fighting between the Russian and the Ukrainian forces continued for the 38th consecutive day. The Ukrainian forces have claimed that the Russians are making a rapid retreat from Kyiv and Chernihiv. However, Kyiv warned that Vladimir Putin's forces are falling back on the east and south. This comes at a time when a veteran war crimes prosecutor Carla Del Ponte has urged the International Criminal Court to issue an arrest warrant against the Russian president.
Here are the five big developments unfolding in the warzone Ukraine.
> After the Ukrainian forces recaptured Bucha town near Kyiv, the bodies of at least 20 men in civilian clothes were recovered in a single street. According to news agency AFP, one of the bodies of the men had his hands tied. The corpses were strewn over several hundred metres of the residential road. The causes of death was not immediately known.
> A Ukrainian official has said that the Russian forces are making a ‘rapid retreat’ from the capital Kyiv and the northern city of Chernihiv. However, the Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhaylo Podolyak warned that Moscow might be falling back on the east and south.
> The US Defence Department has announced that it is allocating $300 million in security assistance for Ukraine to boost its defence capabilities, thus adding to the existing $1.6 billion assistance already committed by the Biden administration. The White House also said it is providing supplies to Ukraine to protect itself if Russia uses chemical and biological weapons against the war-hit country.
> Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy has alleged that the Russian forces are deliberately mining areas in northern Ukraine they withdraw or are pushed by Ukrainian forces. "In the north of our country, the invaders are leaving. It is slow but noticeable. In some places they are being kicked out with fighting. Elsewhere they're abandoning the positions themselves. They are mining all this territory. Houses are mined, equipment is mined, even the bodies of dead people," he said.
>A Ukrainian official on Saturday accused Russian forces of opening fire on peaceful demonstrators, injuring four with "severe burns", in the southern city of Enerhodar occupied by Moscow's forces, AFP reported.The Russian troops took control of Enerhodar, the site of Europe's largest nuclear power plant, in early March. "Today in Enerhodar, city residents gathered again for a rally in support of Ukraine, singing the anthem," Ukraine's human rights ombudsman Lyudmyla Denisova said on Telegram.
