Britain says Ukrainian forces have retaken key northern terrain

Low-level fighting is likely to continue in some parts of newly-recaptured regions, UK says

UK’s defence ministry has said that Ukrainian forces have recaptured some important regions from Russia, forcing Vladimir Putin’s troops to retreat.

“Ukraine’s forces have retaken key terrain in the north of Ukraine, after denying Russia the ability to secure its objectives and forcing Russian forces to retreat from the areas around Chernihiv and north of Kyiv,” the ministry of defence said in a statement on Twitter on Tuesday.

Low-level fighting is likely to continue in some parts of the newly recaptured regions, but may diminish significantly over this week as the remainder of Russian forces withdraw, it said.

“Many Russian units withdrawing from northern Ukraine are likely to require significant re-equipping and refurbishment before being available to redeploy for operations in eastern Ukraine,” the statement added.

On Saturday, Ukraine said that its forces had seized back all areas around Kyiv, claiming complete control of the capital region for the first time since Russia launched the invasion on 24 February.

Officials said that troops have retaken more than 30 towns and villages around Kyiv since Russia pulled back from the area.

Ukraine officials and their Western allies have said that Russian forces are now trying to build strength in eastern Ukraine instead, reported Associated Press.

Ukraine has said that it will continue shelling Russian troops as they move out.

The withdrawal of Russian troops from these region have revealed “war crimes” by the forces, according to Ukrainian officials.

As Russian forces pulled out of Bucha, a town northwest of the capital Kyiv, Ukrainian officials said troops had found hundreds of civilian corpses with bound hands, gunshot wounds and signs of torture.

Foreign secretary Liz Truss has called for Russia to be suspended from the UN human rights council amid “strong evidence” of war crimes and “heinous butchery” in the town.

Boris Johnson also described the discovery of mass graves in areas where Russian forces had withdrawn as “sickening” and vowed: “The UK will not stand by whilst this indiscriminate an

The US has also said it would also seek to end the “farce” of Vladimir Putin’s regime remaining in the council.

Meanwhile, Ukraine’s foreign minister has warned mass killings of civilians in Bucha are only the “tip of the iceberg” of Russian atrocities in the country.

Dmytro Kuleba said scenes in the port city of Mariupol, which is surrounded by Russian troops, were much worse than in Bucha and other towns outside Kyiv.

The Kremlin, however, has continued to deny responsibility for civilian murders carried out during war.

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