The United States cannot confirm who is in control of the city of Irpin, west of Kyiv, a senior US defence official said.
The official said Ukrainian forces have retaken the town of Trostyanets from the Russians, and are also actively attempting to seize control of Kherson.
From the Washington Post’s Dan Lamothe:
Ukrainian troops are continuing offensives to take back terrain.
One new example: The Pentagon now assesses today for the first time that the town of Trostyanets’, about 30 miles south of Sumy, is back under Ukrainian control.
Irpin mayor Oleksandr Markushin earlier announced that the city, which has been under heavy attack since the early days of the invasion, had been “liberated” from Russian forces.
Russian soldiers who seized the site of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster drove unprotected through a highly toxic zone called the “Red Forest”, kicking up clouds of radioactive dust, Chernobyl workers said.
The soldiers drove their armoured vehicles without any anti-radiation gear, according to two sources who spoke to Reuters. Both were on duty when Russian tanks entered Chernobyl on 24 February and took control of the site.
The two Chernobyl employees said they had witnessed Russian tanks and other armoured vehicles moving through the Red Forest, which is the most radioactively contaminated part of the zone around Chernobyl.
One of the Chernobyl employees said it was “suicidal” for the soldiers because the radioactive dust they inhaled was likely to cause internal radiation in their bodies.
The hernobyl nuclear site, about 100km (65 miles) north of Kyiv. Photograph: Gleb Garanich/Reuters
A vast area around Chernobyl is off-limits to anyone who does not work there or have special permission, but the Red Forest is considered so highly contaminated that even the nuclear plant workers are not allowed to go there.
The Russian military convoy went through the zone, the two sources said. One of them said it used an abandoned road.
One of the sources said:
A big convoy of military vehicles drove along a road right behind our facility and this road goes past the Red Forest.
The convoy kicked up a big column of dust. Many radiation safety sensors showed exceeded levels.
Reuters could not independently verify their accounts. Asked about the accounts from Chernobyl staff, Russia’s defence ministry did not respond.
Ukraine government investigates video alleged to show torture of Russian PoWs
Daniel Boffey
Video footage purporting to show the torture of Russian prisoners of war is being investigated by the Ukrainian government.
The film, which has not been verified, appears to show Ukrainian soldiers removing three hooded Russians from a van before shooting them in the legs.
The Ukrainian military commander Gen Valerii Zaluzhnyi accused Russia of staging the videos.
“The enemy produces and shares videos with the inhuman treatment of alleged ‘Russian prisoners’ by ‘Ukrainian soldiers’ in order to discredit the Ukrainian defence forces,” Zaluzhnyi said.
However, the government in Kyiv said they were taking the allegations of mistreatment “very seriously” and that there would be an immediate investigation.
Oleksiy Arestovych, an adviser to the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said:
We are a European army, and we do not mock our prisoners. If this turns out to be real, this is absolutely unacceptable behaviour.
Arestovych added:
I would like to remind all our military, civilian and defence forces once again that the abuse of prisoners is a war crime that has no amnesty under military law and has no statute of limitations.
Oleksander Motuzyanyk, a spokesperson for the Ukrainian military, said they did not know who was involved or where the incidents took place.
He said
Currently, no one can confirm or deny the veracity of this video. It’s not known where it’s happening, or who the participants are.
Firefighters work to extinguish a fire at a warehouse after it was hit by Russian shelling on Monday in Kharkiv, Ukraine. Photograph: Chris McGrath/Getty Images
A local resident looks a damaged Russian tank in the town of Trostyanets, about 400km (250 miles) east of Kyiv. Photograph: Efrem Lukatsky/AP
Ukrainian soldiers ride a tank through the town of Trostyanets. Photograph: Efrem Lukatsky/AP
Carlsberg has said it will pull out entirely from Russia over the country’s invasion of Ukraine, hours after a similar announcement from Heineken.
In a statement, Carlsberg said:
We have taken the difficult and immediate decision to seek a full disposal of our business in Russia, which we believe is the right thing to do in the current environment.
Upon completion we will have no presence in Russia.
The decision to exit Russia would result in a “substantial non-cash impairment charge” this year, it said without providing further details.
Carlsberg owns Russian brewer Baltika Brewery, whose employees represent a fifth of Carlberg’s global workforce.
We deeply regret the consequences of this decision for our 8,400 employees in Russia.
Bottles of Carlsberg beer are seen in fridge in a bar in St Petersburg Photograph: Alexander Demianchuk/Reuters
Roman Abramovich and Ukrainian peace negotiator 'suffer symptoms consistent with poisoning'
Shaun Walker
The billionaire Roman Abramovich and a Ukrainian peace negotiator suffered symptoms consistent with poisoning earlier this month, according a source with direct knowledge of the incident.
Abramovich was taking part in informal peace negotiations in the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, early in March when he began to feel ill, the source told the Guardian. Ukrainian MP Rustem Umerov was also part of the negotiation, and the men later left Ukraine for Poland, and then flew to Istanbul, where they received medical treatment.
“It was during his first trip to Kyiv. Roman lost his sight for several hours. In Turkey, they were treated in a clinic, together with Rustem,” said the source.
The account backs up the claims of a potential poisoning first reported in the Wall Street Journal and by the investigative journalism outlet Bellingcat.
“Bellingcat can confirm that three members of the delegation attending the peace talks between Ukraine and Russia on the night of 3 to 4 March 2022 experienced symptoms consistent with poisoning with chemical weapons. One of victims was Russian entrepreneur Roman Abramovich,” wrote the outlet in a tweet.
Bellingcat said the symptoms included eye and skin inflammation, and piercing pain in the eyes.
“The three men experiencing the symptoms consumed only chocolate and water in the hours before the symptoms appeared. A fourth member of the team who also consumed these did not experience symptoms,” wrote Bellingcat, which said one of its investigators had been asked to provide an opinion on the incident by chemical weapons specialists.
“Based on remote and on-site examinations, the experts concluded that the symptoms are most likely the result of international poisoning with an undefined chemical weapon,” said Bellingcat,
Abramovich’s condition improved and he later returned to Kyiv to take part in another round of negotiations, said the source.
A fourth round of negotiations between official Russian and Ukrainian delegations is due to begin in Istanbul on Tuesday.
Asked for comment A spokesperson for the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said: “There is a lot of speculation at the moment, and we recommend to only follow official information.”
Here’s more on that report in the Wall Street Journal that Roman Abramovich and Ukrainian peace negotiators suffered symptoms of suspected poisoning after a meeting in Kyiv.
My colleague Shaun Walker has spoken with a source who said Abramovich “lost his sight for several hours”.
A source with direct knowledge has just confirmed to me the WSJ/Bellingcat reports that Abramovich suffered symptoms of poisoning. "Roman lost his sight for several hours" and was treated in Turkey, the source said.
The investigative journalism group, Bellingcat, confirmed that three members of the Ukrainian delegation experienced symptoms “consistent with poisoning with chemical weapons”.
Bellingcat can confirm that three members of the delegation attending the peace talks between Ukraine and Russia on the night of 3 to 4 March 2022 experienced symptoms consistent with poisoning with chemical weapons. One of victims was Russian entrepreneur Roman Abramovich. https://t.co/DJaZ4CoL8J
Based on remote and on-site examinations, the experts concluded that the symptoms are most likely the result of international poisoning with an undefined chemical weapon.
The experts said the dosage and type of toxin used was likely insufficient to cause life-threatening damage, and most likely was intended to scare the victims as opposed to cause permanent damage. The victims said they were not aware of who might have had an interest in an attack
Nearly 5,000 people - including 210 children - killed in Mariupol, mayor's office says
Almost 5,000 people, including about 210 children, have been killed in the devastated city of Mariupol since Russia invaded Ukraine last month, a spokesperson for the mayor said.
It was not immediately clear how Vadym Boichenko had calculated the toll, Reuters reports.
Meanwhile, Tetyana Lomakina, a Ukrainian presidential adviser, told AFP at least 5,000 people had died in Mariupol.
About 5,000 people were buried, but the burials stopped 10 days ago because of continued shelling.
She added that the death toll could only be estimated with bodies stuck under the rubble.
We could be talking about 10,000 dead.
A view of destruction and damage after shelling in the Ukrainian city of Mariupol on 27 March 2022. Photograph: Anadolu Agency/Getty Images
A heavily damaged apartment building in Mariupol. Photograph: Alexander Ermochenko/Reuters
Boichenko, who is no longer in Mariupol, earlier said that about 160,000 civilians were still trapped in the city.
The situation in the city remains difficult. People are beyond the line of humanitarian catastrophe.
Face-to-face peace talks between Ukraine and Russia are likely to start in Turkey on Tuesday, the Kremlin has said. Vladimir Putin, and his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, agreed on Sunday that ceasefire talks would be held in Istanbul, possibly beginning as early as the following day. The Kremlin spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, said today, however, that Tuesday was more likely.
The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said Ukraine is willing to discuss “neutral status” at face-to-face talks with Russia. In a video interview with independent Russian media outlets, Zelenskiy suggested he could make compromises about the status of the eastern Donbas region but he said he was not willing to discuss demilitarisation, and said Ukrainians would need to vote in a referendum to approve their country adopting a neutral status.
Ukraine is not willing to sacrifice its “territorial integrity”, Alexander Rodnyansky, a senior adviser to the Ukrainian president, said. He told BBC Radio 4’s World at One programme that “now the pressure is on Russia” and suggested that a “more concrete” version of the “Budapest memorandum” - which gave Ukraine security assurances - would be necessary to secure peace.
Ukrainian forces have seized back full control of the town of Irpin, a few miles from Kyiv, the local mayor said. Mayor Oleksandr Markushyn said Irpin had been “liberated” and that Russian soldiers were “offering to surrender”. The information could not immediately be verified.
The southern Ukrainian city of Mariupol is on the verge of a humanitarian catastrophe and must be completely evacuated, its mayor said. Vadym Boichenko said about 160,000 civilians were trapped in the city without power. Twenty-six buses were waiting to evacuate civilians but Russian forces had not agreed to give them safe passage, he said
Kyiv sees no signs on the ground that Russia has given up a plan to surround the Ukrainian capital, Ukrainian defence ministry spokesperson, Oleksander Motuzyanyk, said. “For now we don’t see the movement of enemy forces away from Kyiv,” he said in a televised briefing.
Ukraine’s economy minister, Yulia Svyrydenko, said the war has so far cost Ukraine $564.9bn (£429.3bn) in terms of damage to infrastructure, lost economic growth and other factors. Eight thousand kilometres (4,970 miles) of roads and 10m sq metres of housing have been damaged or destroyed as a result of fighting, she said in an online post.
President Zelenskiy accused Russian authorities of disrespect towards the families of their own dead soldiers. Criticising Moscow for not agreeing on a scheme to have the remains of those killed in action returned to Russia, Zelenskiy claimed the Kremlin was affording less respect to those killed during its invasion of Ukraine than is usually given to dead pets.
Novaya Gazeta, one of Russia’s last remaining independent news outlets, has said it will suspend operations after it received a second warning from the state censor for allegedly violating the country’s “foreign agent” law. The warning came a day after its editor-in-chief, Dmitry Muratov, spoke with Zelenskiy in a group interview with Russian journalists that was quickly banned by the state media watchdog, Roskomnadzor.
The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has accused Russian authorities of disrespect towards the families of their own dead soldiers, criticising Moscow for not agreeing on a scheme to have the remains of those killed in action returned to Russia, Shaun Walker and Pjotr Sauer report.
Zelenskiy claimed the Kremlin was affording less respect to those killed during its invasion of Ukraine than is usually given to dead pets.
We’ve all had a moment in our lives when someone has passed away, maybe not even close people or relatives. Listen: even when a dog or a cat dies, that’s just not how to behave.
Zelenskiy said in an online interview with Russian journalists on Sunday evening.
I’m saying this to you as the president of a country that is fighting with Russian soldiers … It’s a war, but they are not animals.
Ukrainian servicemen Chernikov Pavlo is laid to rest during his burial service at the Lychakiv Cemetery on March 28, 2022 in Lviv, Ukraine. Photograph: Joe Raedle/Getty Images
Ukraine’s deputy prime minister Iryna Vereshchuk, who is responsible for negotiations with Moscow on returning the remains, said that despite repeated offers for Russia to present lists of the missing and have them returned, officials in Moscow were more concerned about covering up the scale of the losses.
She said she had spoken by telephone or Zoom to several Russian officials, including the deputy defence minister, Alexander Fomin, and Tatyana Moskalkova, the Kremlin’s ombudsman for human rights.
The Russian authorities don’t want these bodies. I talked to her, and said: ‘Take your bodies away.’ She had no response. She just said: ‘We’ll work on it.’
