JAKARTA - Former world heavyweight boxing champion Vitali Klitschko, who is currently the mayor of Kyiv, has asked his citizens not to return to the city, even though Russian troops were repulsed from around Kyiv.
Ukraine pushed back Russian troops around Kyiv on Friday, retaking control of several areas near the capital amid heavy fighting, Ukrainian officials said.
Russia said during negotiations on Tuesday it would scale back operations in the Kyiv and Chernihiv regions, both of which are in northern Ukraine. However, officials in both regions said fighting was continuing in some areas.
"Our troops are chasing them to the northwest and northeast (Kyiv), pushing the enemy away from Kyiv," said Oleksiy Arestovych, political adviser to President Volodymyr Zelenskiy.
He said Russia was also doing a partial troop rotation and sending some of its troops to fight in eastern Ukraine.
Later, local officials said the towns of Bucha and Ivankiv in the northern Kyiv region had been retaken by Ukrainian forces. While the Ukrainian armed forces said the nearby town of Borodyanka had also been liberated, it shared photos of Ukrainian troops they said were taken in the city.
"March 31 will go down in the history of our city, as the day of its liberation from the Russians," Bucha Mayor Anatoli Fedoruk said in a video apparently filmed outside the city hall.
Reuters could not immediately verify information about retaken settlements, military movements or fighting in the area.
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said Russian troops were not retreating but were reorganizing their forces. Meanwhile, Ukrainian officials say Russian troops are losing power rather than retreating of their own accord.
Separately, Mayor Vitaliy Klitschko urged residents not to return to Kyiv, as heavy fighting is taking place in the north and east of the capital. He did not indicate this was a new battle.
"The risk of death is quite high, and that's why my advice to anyone wanting to return is: Please, take a little more time," he said.
Meanwhile, the governor of the Chernihiv region, where Russia has also promised to withdraw, said some Russian troops had been withdrawn but some remained on his territory.
"Air and missile strikes (still) are possible in the region, no one is ruling out this," Governor Viacheslav Chaus said in a video speech.
Ukrainian officials also said the southern port city of Mariupol was still holding out after weeks of bombardment by Russian forces and fighting continues in eastern Ukraine.
As previously reported, Ukrainian troops managed to launch a counterattack against Russian troops, recapturing two strategic areas that had been bombarded by the Moscow army, as reported earlier.
British military intelligence said on Friday Ukrainian forces had recaptured the villages of Sloboda and Lukashivka south of Chernihiv, located along the main supply route between the city and Kyiv.
As quoted by The National News, the success of recapturing the strategic villages of Sloboda and Lukashivka, is considered to be able to help reduce the attack on Chernihiv.
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