Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy addresses the Australian Parliament via videolink, Kyiv, March 31, 2022

EA on Monocle 24: Will Higher Gasoline Prices Erode US Support for Ukraine?

EA on RTE and Times Radio: The Next Phase of the Ukraine War

Slain Civilians and A “Murderous Horde” of Disillusioned Russian Troops — The Month-Long Occupation of Trostyanets

Friday’s Coverage: “Misinformed” Putin Lashes Out Amid Russian Military’s Losses

UPDATE 1835 GMT:

Ukrainian forces have retaken control of the entire Kyiv region, according to Ukraine Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Malyar.

“Irpin, Bucha, Gostomel and the whole Kyiv region – is liberated from the invader,” she wrote.

UPDATE 1425 GMT:

A claim is circulating, from a journalist via the former Ukraine Ambassador to Austria, that all adult men under 60 were killed in Bucha by Russian forces before they left the town, northwest of Kyiv.

Mayor Anatoly Fedoruk said 280 people have been buried in a mass grave. Some of the corpses on the street were as young as 14 years old — many had white bandages on them “to show that they were unarmed”.

“All these people were shot, killed, in the back of the head,” Fedoruk said.

Earlier today video showed bodies strewn across Bucha’s streets. A graphic photo of some of the dead men, with head wounds, has been posted on social media.

AFP reports that the bodies of at least 20 men in civilian clothes were found lying in the street, strewn over several hundred meters. The hands of one of the bodies were tied.

UPDATE 1435 GMT:

The city of Brovary, 12 miles east of Kyiv, has been recaptured by Ukrainian forces.

As in other areas from which they have withdrawn, the Russians have reportedly heavily mined the territory.

With Ukrainian officials saying troops have retaken control of more than 30 towns and villages in the Kyiv region, the emergencies service said more than 1,500 explosives were found in one day in the village of Dmytrivka, west of the capital.

Chernihiv regional governor Viacheslav Chaus also spoke of Russians mining as they retreated, “There are a lot of mines. [The villages] are strewn with them.”

UPDATE 1300 GMT:

Photographer and videographer Maksim Levin, an employee of the Ukrainian news website LB.ua and a long-time contributor to Reuters, was killed in a village north of Kyiv on Friday.

A married father of four, Levin was slain in Huta Mezhyhirska “by servicemen of the Russian Armed Forces with two shots from small arms”, according to the Ukraine Prosecutor General’s office.

He is the seventh journalist killed during the Russian invasion.

UPDATE 1250 GMT:

Russian forces suppressed a pro-Ukrainian rally in occupied Enerhodar in southern Ukraine on Saturday, detaining some residents, according to local officials.

People had gathered in the town center to chat and to sing the Ukrainian national anthem, next to the town’s cultural center.

The local administration said Russian forces shelled another part of the town, wounding four civilians.

Ukraine’s human rights ombudsman Lyudmyla Denisova said:

Today in Enerhodar, city residents gathered again for a rally in support of Ukraine, singing the anthem.

The occupiers used light and noise grenades and opened mortar fire on the residents, four people were injured and severely burned.

Enerhodar is near the Zaporizhzhia nuclear complex, seized by the Russians in the initial days of the invasion.

UPDATE 1030 GMT:

The military monitor Oryx updates its list of confirmed Russian losses:

  • 389 tanks
  • 265 armored fighting vehicles
  • 375 infantry fighting vehicles
  • 81 armored personnel carriers
  • 17 mine-resistant ambush protected vehicles
  • 75 infantry mobility vehicles
  • 14 communications stations
  • 75 engineering vehicles
  • 76 anti-tank guided missiles
  • 17 aircraft
  • 38 helicopters
  • 19 drones
  • 3 ships

The Russians have also lost numerous anti-air systems and multiple rocket launchers.

UPDATE 1000 GMT:

The death toll from Russia’s attack on the regional administration building in Mykolaiv in southern Ukraine has risen to 35.

UPDATE 0947 GMT:

UK military intelligence has updated on the Russian withdrawal from near Kyiv. It reports Ukrainian advance northwest of the capital, from Irpin towards Bucha and Hostomel.

Russian forces have reportedly pulled out of Hostomel Airport. The airport was a focus of Russian attacks on the first night of its invasion, with Moscow’s plan to use it as a staging post for special forces moving into Kyiv, seizing and possibly killing the Ukrainian leadership. However, stiff resistance delayed the Russian takeover and prevented its swift entry into the capital.

Video on social media appears to show dead civilians on Bucha’s streets after the Russians departed.

The UK report also says Ukraine’s military have secured a key route in the eastern Kharkiv region in the northeast of the country. The advance follows the liberation of the town of Trostyanets last week.

See also Slain Civilians and A “Murderous Horde” of Disillusioned Russian Troops — The Month-Long Occupation of Trostyanets

UPDATE 0940 GMT:

At least 1/3 of Ukraine’s land for spring crops, such as maize and sunflower, is likely to go unplanted, and 1/3 of the wheat harvest from last autumn may be lost.

The sharp reduction in agricultural output has global significance, given Ukraine’s position as a leading exporter of crops.

A small amount of wheat is being exported by rail and road to Poland and Romania, but this is a “tiny fraction” of normal movement through the Black Sea ports of Odesa and Mykolaiv.

Global cereal prices reached an all-time high in February. The UN’s World Food Programme said it is already cutting rations to countries in need.

UPDATE 0935 GMT:

An advisor to Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelesnskiy has expressed hope for mass evacuations from the besieged city of Mariupol in southern Ukraine.

Oleksiy Arestovych said on national TV:

Our delegation has reached an agreement in Istanbul [during Ukraine-Russia talks] to provide evacuations.

I think that today or maybe tomorrow we will hear good news regarding the evacuation of the inhabitants of Mariupol.

UPDATE 0632 GMT:

At least 158 children have been killed and at least 254 injured by Russia’s invasion, according to the office of the Ukraine Prosecutor General.

UPDATE 0630 GMT:

Russian missiles struck Poltava and Krmenchuk in central Ukraine early Saturday, says the head of the Poltava region, Dmitry Lunin.

“Poltava. A missile struck one of the infrastructure facilities overnight,” Dmitry Lunin wrote. “Kremenchuk. Many attacks on the city in the morning.”

ORIGINAL ENTRY: Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has spoken of the Russian withdrawal from near Kyiv, after the failure of Vladimir Putin’s Plan A to occupy the capital and detain or kill Ukrainian leaders.

Zelenskiy also noted the Russian departure from near Chernihiv, 100 miles to the north, after their siege and bombardment could not conquer the city. But he warned that the retreating Russian forces had created “a complete disaster”, leaving mines across “the whole territory”, including around homes and corpses.

A reminder of the destruction comes in an Associated Press report from Irpin, northwest of the capital. Almost every building is destroyed or damaged. Rescue workers are taking bodies to the blown-up bridge on the road to Kyiv, where dozens of burned, bullet-ridden, and abandoned cars are being cleared.

A Ukrainian soldier says bluntly, “It’s the apocalypse.”

The Ukrainian military said 20% of Russian forces have now pulled back from the Kyiv area. It claimed the repulsion of nine Russian attacks on Friday, destroying eight tanks, 44 armoured vehicles, 16 other vehicles, and 10 artillery systems.

Elsewhere, the Russians blocked another attempt at mass evacuation of civilians from the besieged port city of Mariupol in southern Ukraine.

The City Council and Zelenskiy said about 3,000 people had been able to flee on Friday. But the Red Cross said that its convoy of 54 buses and vehicles “had to return to Zaporizhzhia”, 136 miles to the northwest, “after conditions made it impossible to proceed”.

The agency added, “We will try again tomorrow.”

In the east, Ukrainian forces are bracing for a Russian “Plan B” to take more territory around its proxy areas in the Donbas. A US official said on Friday that it will coordinate with allies to transfer Soviet-made tanks to Ukraine to bolster the defenses in the region.

The US Department of Defense added that it will provide additional $300 million in security assistance, including laser-guided rocket systems, drones, and commercial satellite imagery services.

Russia suffered another setback on Friday with a fire at its oil storage facility in Belgorod, 25 miles north of the border with Ukraine.

The Kremlin and the regional governor accused Ukraine of attacking the depot with helicopters. Ukrainian officials denied involvement, but the damage will hinder supply of fuel and ammunition to Russia’s forces near Ukraine’s second city of Kharkiv.

The Russians did grab a bargaining chip on Friday: as its forces withdrew from the area of the Chernobyl nuclear plant — reportedly after some suffered radiation poisoning — they took about 200 captured members of the Ukrainian national guard with them, according to a local official.