Ukraine denies attacking fuel depot in Russia
Kyiv mayor says Russia continues bombing towns despite promise to scale back
The latest:
- Russians leave Chornobyl, return control of nuclear site to Ukraine.
- Turkey's president calls on leaders of Russia, Ukraine to meet for peace talks.
- Red Cross says aid team unable to reach besieged city of Mariupol.
Moscow on Friday accused Ukraine of a cross-border helicopter attack on a fuel depot in Russia.
The governor of Russia's Belgorod region, Vyacheslav Gladkov, said a fiery raid on Russian soil by two helicopter gunships left two people wounded, though state oil company Rosneft denied anyone was hurt.
"Certainly, this is not something that can be perceived as creating comfortable conditions for the continuation of the talks," Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said, five weeks after Moscow began sending upwards of 150,000 of its own troops across Ukraine's border.
The Russian claim could not immediately be verified, and Ukraine denied responsibility.
"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 television.
Russia has reported cross-border shelling from Ukraine before, including an incident last week that killed a military chaplain, but not an incursion of its airspace. The Rosneft depot is about 35 kilometres from the Ukraine border.
Bombings around Kyiv
The mayor of Kyiv said the bombardment of satellite towns near the Ukrainian capital was ongoing despite Russian promises of scaling back troops from the region.
Vitali Klitschko told British broadcaster Sky News on Friday he could hear the sounds of explosions "nonstop during the day and night."
Klitschko said that the cities northwest of Kyiv such as Irpin, Borodyanka and Hostomel were being targeted after Ukrainian fighters moved back Russian troops, and that fighting also persisted in Brovary, east of Kyiv.
For those who may want to return to Kyiv in light of the supposed Russian withdrawal, he urged people to wait a "couple of weeks" to see how the situation develops.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russian forces were leaving behind "a complete disaster" as they retreat from the north, including towns just outside Kyiv, and he warned residents to beware of more Russian shelling and of land mines.
"They are mining the whole territory, they are mining homes, mining equipment, even the bodies of people who were killed," he said in his nighttime video address to the nation late Friday.
He urged residents to wait to resume their normal lives until they are assured that the mines have been cleared and the danger of shelling has passed.
Meanwhile, Ukraine's general staff says the country's armed forces have retaken control over 29 settlements in the Kyiv and Chernihiv regions, where Russia has pulled back some of its troops.
The Russian military in the northeast continues to block and shell Chernihiv and Kharkiv, the general staff said Friday.
In the southeast of the country the Russians are trying to seize the cities of Popasna, Rubizhne and Mariupol in order to expand the territory of separatist republics of Donetsk and Luhansk, according to the Ukrainian military.
Humanitarian help unable to reach Mariupol
The International Committee of the Red Cross says a team intending to help people leave the besieged city of Mariupol was unable to reach the port city on Friday.
The Red Cross said in a statement that the team hopes to try again Saturday.
"Arrangements and conditions made it impossible" for the convoy of three vehicles to get safely to Mariupol and they returned to Zaporizhzhia, it said.
WATCH | Residents struggle to escape Mariupol:
"For the operation to succeed, it is critical that the parties respect the agreements and provide the necessary conditions and security guarantees," the organization said.
Authorities in Mariupol say it is not possible to enter Mariupol and that it is dangerous for people to try and leave it on their own.
"We don't see a real desire from the Russians ... to provide an opportunity for Mariupol residents to evacuate to territory controlled by Ukraine," Petro Andryushchenko, adviser the mayor of the city, said Friday on the messaging app Telegram.
"Since yesterday, the occupiers have categorically not allowed any humanitarian cargo, even in small volumes, to enter the city," he added.
French President Emmanuel Macron promised to keep working to establish a sustainable humanitarian corridor in and out of Mariupol in talks Friday with Zelensky.
Zelensky appealed to Macron to continue diplomatic efforts to get Russia to agree to conditions for evacuation and aid, according to Macron's office. That includes a durable ceasefire announced far enough in advance to be able to organize help. The French leader has been trying for a week to arrange help for Mariupol, so far without evident success.
Perched on the Sea of Azov, Mariupol has been a key target that has been relentlessly pounded for weeks and has seen some of the worst suffering of the war. The fall of the southern port city would help Russia establish a land bridge to Crimea — a southern region annexed by Russia in 2014 — and the Donbas, the predominantly Russian-speaking eastern region where Moscow-backed separatists have been battling Ukrainian forces since 2014.
Russian troops depart Chornobyl
Ukraine's foreign minister says that now his country's government is back in control of the Chornobyl nuclear site, it will work with the UN atomic agency to determine what the occupying Russians did there and mitigate any danger.
Russian troops left the heavily contaminated nuclear site early Friday after returning control to the Ukrainians.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said the Russians behaved irresponsibly at the site during the more than four weeks that they controlled it, preventing staff at the plant from performing their full duties and digging trenches in contaminated areas.
Kuleba told a news conference in Warsaw that the Russian government had exposed its soldiers to radiation, endangering their health.
Turkey calls for Putin-Zelensky talks
Turkey's president said he renewed a call for a meeting between leaders of Ukraine and Russia in a telephone call Friday with Putin.
A statement from Recep Tayyip Erdogan's office said he and Putin also discussed the negotiations between Ukraine and Russia that were held in Istanbul earlier in the week.
Erdogan's office said the Turkish leader told Putin that the Istanbul talks had "raised hopes for peace." Erdogan said Turkey wanted to cap off those efforts by bringing Putin and Zelensky together, according to the statement.
Earlier on Friday, Erdogan said Zelensky was willing to participate in a leaders' meeting to be hosted by Turkey.
Also Friday, talks between Russia and Ukraine have resumed via video link.
Russian delegation head Vladimir Medinsky published a picture of the talks under way Friday. Zelensky's office confirmed to The Associated Press that the negotiations had resumed.
Friday's talks came three days after the last meeting, in Turkey, between Russian and Ukrainian delegations.
Medinsky, the Russian lead negotiator, said "our positions on Crimea and the Donbas are unchanged."