Zelenskyy says Russians leaving mines in streets
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russia is leaving a treacherous landscape in its wake as the invading forces retreat from around Kyiv, boobytrapping streets and civilian homes.
“They are mining the whole territory, they are mining homes, mining equipment, even the bodies of people who were killed,” Zelenskyy said in a video address late Friday. He urged residents to wait to resume their normal lives until land mines could be cleared and the danger of more shelling has passed.
As talks between the nations resumed Friday, some Russian forces continued pulling away from the Ukraine capital, though Ukrainian and Western officials have warned the move is likely not a signal that the war will wind down. Rather, Russian forces are likely resupplying, they have said.
The peace talks were complicated Friday when the Russians accused Ukraine of a helicopter attack on a Russian fuel depot, which Kyiv denied but would mark the first airstrike from Ukraine on Russian soil.
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Latest developments:
►Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said 4,217 citizens were evacuated along humanitarian corridors on Saturday.
► Russian military troops departed the heavily contaminated Chernobyl nuclear power plant Friday, handing control back to Ukrainians.
► A Ukrainian official said there were casualties after at least three Russian ballistic missiles were fired late Friday at the Odesa region on the Black Sea.
► After it was unable to reach the ravaged city of Mariupol Friday, a Red Cross team is planning to attempt another evacuation of thousands of citizens Saturday.
► Ukraine’s prosecutor general’s office is opening an investigation into his death of a well-known Ukrainian photojournalist who went missing last month and now has been found dead.
► Lithuania on Saturday announced it would stop importing Russian gas, making it the first European Union nation to achieve independence from Moscow’s gas supplies.
208 detained in anti-war protests in Russia
A Russian group that monitors political arrests says 208 people were detained in demonstrations held Saturday across the country protesting Russia’s military operation in Ukraine.
The OVD-Info group said demonstrations took place in 17 Russian cities, from Siberia to the more densely populated west. More than 70 people were were detained in Moscow and a similar number in St. Petersburg, the organization said.
Video released by another group that monitors protests, Avtozak, showed some detainees being led to police prisoner transports as they smiled and carried flowers. Others were shown to be more harshly forced into the transports, bent over with their arms pinioned behind them.
Russian President Vladimir Putin’s government has cracked down heavily on dissent, even before Russia invaded Ukraine in February.
-The Associated Press
Lithuania to stop Russian gas imports after Putin’s ruble demand
The president of Lithuania on Saturday announced it would no longer import Russian gas, making it the first nation in the European Union to achieve independence from Russian gas supplies.
“From this month on – no more Russian gas in Lithuania,” Lithuanian President Gitanas Nausėda tweeted Saturday. “Years ago my country made decisions that today allow us with no pain to break energy ties with the agressor (sic). If we can do it, the rest of Europe can do it too!”
The nation’s decision comes after Russian President Vladimir Putin demanded in March that “unfriendly countries” pay for its gas in rubles, the official Russian currency. He claimed that the West’s economic sanctions “compromised” the dollar and euro.
European leaders cautiously pushed back, insisting they would continue to pay for natural gas in euros and dollars and that they wanted to see the fine print of how the Kremlin would implement its decree.
But Russia appears to be softening its demand. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said that, in a Wednesday call, Putin said Germany could pay the Gazprom Bank euros for gas, which would then be transferred in rubles to Russia, German broadcaster Deutsche Well reported.
– Ella Lee; The Associated Press
Biden quiet about Ukraine during speech at submarine ceremony
President Joe Biden did not bring up Russia’s war in Ukraine during brief remarks Saturday morning at the Port of Wilmington during a commissioning ceremony for the USS Delaware.
Biden, who is spending the weekend at his Wilmington home, spoke for just three minutes to introduce first lady Jill Biden as the official sponsor of the nuclear-powered, fast attack submarine.
“I just want to say thank you for everyone involved in bringing this submarine into service,” Biden said.
After the event, Biden ignored a question from a reporter on whether the U.S. will…