Featured Image Credit: Alamy
Topics: Ukraine, Russia, Politics, Volodymyr Zelensky, Vladimir Putin
Dominic Smithers
Topics: Ukraine, Russia, Politics, Volodymyr Zelensky, Vladimir Putin
The Ukrainian president has condemned Russian troops for 'booby-trapping bodies' as they retreat.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned his people after reports that soldiers retreating back to Russia had been leaving traps along their way.
Ukraine’s military claims to have retaken 29 settlements in the Kyiv and Chernihiv regions
However, in a video message yesterday (1 April), Mr Zelenskyy said that while troops were withdrawing from the outskirts of the capital city, they weren't going peacefully.
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He said: "The occupiers are withdrawing forces in the north of our country. The withdrawal is slow but noticeable. Somewhere they are expelled with battles. Somewhere they leave positions on their own.
"They are mining the whole territory. They are mining homes, mining equipment, even the bodies of people who were killed.
"There are a lot of trip wires, a lot of other dangers."
Mr Zelenskyy also addressed the humanitarian crisis that is going on in the eastern city of Mariupol, where Russian forces have been laying siege for weeks.
Images from the city show the devastation being caused by the war, with schools, hospitals and shops destroyed.
Last month, an art school sheltering 400 civilians in the city was hit by Russian bombs, according to local authorities.
"In the east of our country, the situation remains extremely difficult. The Russian militaries are being accumulated in Donbas, in the Kharkiv direction," he said.
"They are preparing for new powerful blows. We are preparing for even more active defence."
He said work was ongoing to get people to safety, but admitted that it wasn't easy.
Mr Zelenskyy went on: "We are moving forward. Moving carefully. And everyone who returns to this area must also be very careful.
"It is still impossible to return to normal life as it was. Even in the areas we return after the fighting. You will have to wait. Wait for our land to be cleared. Wait until you can be assured that new shelling is impossible."
This comes after a BBC correspondent reported seeing over a dozen bodies lying by the side of the road close to the towns of Mria and Myla, just west of Kyiv.
Two of the deceased were identified as civilians who had been killed by Russian troops.
Horrifying images taken from Irpin also showed Ukrainian soldiers and volunteers collecting the bodies of the dead from a bridge, which had been destroyed.
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