Mines in wake of Russian retreat keep Kyiv unsafe: Zelenskyy

Retreating Russian troops have been creating a 'catastrophic' situation for civilians by leaving mines around homes, abandoned equipment and "even the bodies of those killed", as they pull back from Ukraine's capital region, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy

warned on Saturday.

Ukraine and its Western allies reported mounting evidence of Russia withdrawing its forces from around Kyiv and building up troop strength in eastern region of the war-torn country.

Ukrainian fighters reclaimed several areas near the capital after forcing the Russians out or moving in after them, officials said.

The visible shift did not mean the country faced a reprieve from more than five weeks of war or that the more than four million refugees who have fled Ukraine will return soon.

Zelenskyy said he expected departed towns to receive airstrikes and shelling from afar and for the battle in the east to be intense.

"It's still not possible to return to normal life, as it used to be, even at the territories that we are taking back after the fighting," the president told his nation in a nightly video message.

"We need to wait until our land is demined, wait till we are able to assure you that there won't be new shelling."

Moscow's focus on eastern Ukraine also kept the besieged southern city of Mariupol in the crosshairs.

The port city on the Sea of Azoz is located in the mostly Russian-speaking Donbas region, where Russiabacked separatists have fought Ukrainian troops for eight years and military analysts think Russian President Vladimir Putin is seeking to expand control after his forces failed to secure

Kyiv and other major cities.

The International Committee of the Red Cross planned to try on Saturday to get emergency supplies into Mariupol and to evacuate residents.

The Red Cross said it was unable to carry out the operation on Friday because it did not receive assurances the route was safe. City authorities said the Russians blocked access to the city.

The Mariupol city council on Saturday said 10 empty buses were headed to Berdyansk, a city 84 kilometres west of Mariupol, to pick up people who can get there on their own.

Some 2,000 made it out of Mariupol on Friday, some on buses and some in their own vehicles, city officials said.

Oleksiy Arestovych, an adviser to Zelenskyy, in an interview with Russian lawyer and activist Mark Feygin said that Russia and Ukraine had reached an agreement to allow 45 buses to drive to Mariupol to evacuate residents "in coming days".

Such agreements have been reached before, only to be breached.