The Ukrainian town of Bucha has been recaptured by President Zelensky’s forces, according to the local mayor, as Kyiv claimed that 17,700 Russian troops have now been killed since Vladimir Putin launched his invasion.
Anatoliy Fedoruk announced on Friday night that the town outside the capital had been reclaimed the previous day, adding that 31 March “will go down in the history of our town... as the day of its liberation from Russia”.
The news came as a Ukrainian journalist claimed that Russian troops were retreating “en masse” from around Kyiv.
Oleksiy Sorokin said Bucha and Hostomel were among “tens of other towns and villages” that are now under the Ukrainian flag.
It has not been possible to independently verify these claims.
Meanwhile a spokesman for Ukraine’s military said Russian units had “partially” withdrawn from Kyiv and Chernihiv - adding there were currently insufficient Russian troops to attack the capital.
“But we can’t predict what will happen, and we aren’t going to reduce our defence,” he said.
It comes three days after Moscow claimed it would reduce military activity near the capital and the northern city of Chernihiv to promote trust in talks between Russia and Ukraine.
Mayor of #Bucha Anatoliy Fedoruk declares
— ZOONewsTV (@ZOONewsTV) April 1, 2022
that the city has been liberated
from Russian invaders
by Ukrainian armed forces.#UkraineRussiaWar #Ukraine #Russia pic.twitter.com/hxfwgrCT52
However the mayor of Kyiv said the bombardment of satellite towns near capital was ongoing. Vitali Klitschko told Sky News on Friday he could hear the sounds of explosions “nonstop during the day and night”.
Ukraine’s military claimed on Friday that 17,700 Russian troops have now been killed since the invasion began on February 24, with 1,751 armoured personnel vehicles destroyed.
Last week, Russia claimed that 1,351 of its troops had died fighting in Ukraine, while a Nato officer has estimated between 7,000 and 15,000 Russian deaths.
As Russia appeared to shifting its focus away from Kyiv and the surrounding areas, there were reports on Friday night of rockets hitting a residential district around Odesa in southwest Ukraine. The region’s governor said there were casualties, claiming the missiles were fired from an Iskander missile system in Crimea, the southern peninsula annexed by Russia in 2014.
Meanwhile a Red Cross convoy was forced to postpone a rescue mission in the besieged port of Mariupol.
The convoy was intended to help residents escape the devastated city on Friday but was forced to turn around, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said.
“They will try again on Saturday to facilitate the safe passage of civilians from Mariupol,” the ICRC said in a statement. It said the convoy returned to Zaporizhzhia northwest of the southern port “after arrangements and conditions made it impossible to proceed.”
Mariupol has been encircled since the early days of the Russian invasion of Ukraine that began on February 24.
A previous attempt by the Red Cross to reach it in early March failed because the route was found to be unsafe.
The Red Cross team of three cars carrying nine staff members had aimed to lead a convoy of about 54 Ukrainian buses and a number of private vehicles out of the city, where the mayor says 170,000 people are without power and have limited food.
ICRC spokesperson Ewan Watson said the Red Cross was not allowed to take medical equipment and other humanitarian aid with the convoy.
“The situation is horrendous and deteriorating. It is now a humanitarian imperative that people be allowed to leave and aid supplies be allowed in,” Watson said.
Ukrainian authorities also said the Russians were blocking humanitarian aid from reaching Mariupol.
After announcing Friday mission’s had been unsuccessful, the ICRC renewed its appeal for all parties to respect the agreements before the next attempt and provide “the necessary conditions and security guarantees.”
In other developments as the invasion entered its 38th day:
* Ukraine denied accusations from Moscow that it had launched a cross-border attack on a fuel depot. The governor of Russia’s Belgorod region, Vyacheslav Gladkov, said two people had been wounded in a raid by two helicopter gunships on the fuel depot 20 miles from the border.
“For some reason they say that we did it, but in fact this does not correspond with reality,” Oleksiy Danilov, secretary of Ukraine’s national security council, said on Ukrainian TV.
* Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Mr Putin had ordered the military to strengthen the country’s western borders so that no one would ever think of launching an attack.
* The White House said the US is providing Ukraine with supplies and equipment in case Russia deploys chemical or biological weapons. Press secretary Jen Psaki said the supplies were being provided given the possibility that Russia could deploy such weapons in Ukraine and might be planning a “false flag” operation to lay the groundwork for such an attack.
* The International Energy Agency says its members agreed Friday to release further oil from their emergency reserves in response to the market turmoil caused by Russia’s invasion.
* Turkey’s president said he renewed a call for a meeting between leaders of Ukraine and Russia in a phone call Friday with Mr Putin.
* The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency said that Russian forces’ departure from the decommissioned Chernobyl power plant on Thursday is “a step in the right direction” and the UN nuclear watchdog plans to be there “very, very soon.”
