Ukraine war: Trapped in Chernigiv, no let-up as Russian forces continue to advance

The mayor of a war-scarred town in northern Ukraine said Saturday that the slow advance of Russian troops means that large-scale evacuations from the town are no longer possible. Chernigiv has been a centre of fighting between Russian troops and Ukraine’s army since Moscow sent troops into its pro-democratic neighbour just over one month ago.

Earlier this week, city officials said Russian troops had deliberately targeted a key bridge linking the northern town with the capital Kyiv, restricting opportunities to leave. “City officials can no longer arrange humanitarian corridors or evacuate the wounded,” Chernigiv mayor Vladislav Atroshenko told reporters, adding that a pedestrian crossing leaving the city was under “constant” attack from Russian troops.

“We are deciding on how to get the seriously injured out by any means. We can’t operate on them locally,” he said, saying some 44 people, both military and civilians were in need of medical attention.

He said that more than 200 civilians had been killed in the city since Russian forces invaded Ukraine on February 24, and that 120,000 remain in the city of an estimated pre-invasion population of nearly around 280,000.

Russian forces also took control of a town where workers at the defunct Chernobyl nuclear plant live, the governor of Kyiv region said on Saturday, and fighting was reported in the streets of the besieged southern port of Mariupol.

After more than four weeks of conflict, Russia has failed to seize any major Ukrainian city and on Friday Moscow signalled it was scaling back its military ambitions to focus on territory claimed by Russian-backed separatists in the east.