Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russian forces were leaving behind “a complete disaster” as they retreat from the north, including towns just outside Kyiv, and he warned residents to beware of more Russian shelling and of land mines.
"There are a lot of trip wires, a lot of other dangers."
He urged residents to wait to resume their normal lives until they are assured the mines have been cleared and the danger of shelling has passed.
He issued the warning as the humanitarian crisis in the encircled city of Mariupol deepened, with Russian forces blocking evacuation operations for the second day in a row, and the Kremlin accused the Ukrainians of launching a helicopter attack on a fuel depot on Russian soil.
Ukraine denied responsibility for the fiery blast, but if Moscow's claim is confirmed, it would be the war's first known attack in which Ukrainian aircraft penetrated Russian airspace.
Ukraine recaptures more territory around Kyiv
Ukrainian forces continue to advance against withdrawing Russian forces in the vicinity of Kyiv, British military intelligence said on Saturday.
Russian forces are also reported to have withdrawn from Hostomel airport near the capital, which has been subject to fighting since the first day of the conflict, Britain's Ministry of Defence said in a regular bulletin.
The report could not be immediately verified.
In the hamlet of Dmytrivka, to the west of the capital, smoke was still rising from the wrecks of tanks and the bodies of at least eight Russian soldiers lay in the streets, according to Reuters correspondents.
"From one side we were hearing the tanks shooting at us, and from the area of Bucha was a massive mortar shelling," said resident Leonid Vereshchagin, a business executive, referring to a town to the north.
Ukrainian forces went on to take back Bucha, its Mayor said on Friday in a video that appeared to be filmed outside the town hall.
The advances followed several days of Ukrainian gains around Kyiv and in the north.
In south-west Ukraine, anti-aircraft defences thwarted an attempted attack on critical infrastructure in the Black Sea port of Odesa, the Ukrainian military said. The account could not be immediately verified.
Odesa's Governor, Maksym Marchenko, said three missiles had hit a residential district, causing casualties.
He said the missiles were fired from an Iskander missile system in Crimea, the southern Ukrainian peninsula annexed by Russia in 2014.
Missiles hit Paltova and Kremenchuk
Russian missiles hit two cities in central Ukraine early on Saturday, damaging infrastructure and residential buildings, the head of the Poltava region said.
Mr Lunin later said at least four missiles hit two infrastructure objects in Poltava while, according to preliminary information, three enemy planes attacked the industrial facilities of Kremenchuk.
Poltava city is the capital of the Poltava region, east of Kyiv, and Kremenchuk is one of the area's major cities.
There was no immediate information about possible casualties, Mr Lunin said.
Reuters could not immediately verify the report.
In the Dnipro region in south-western Ukraine, missiles hit an infrastructure facility, wounding two people and causing significant damage, Valentyn Reznichenko, head of the region, said in an online post.
In the city of Kryvyi Rih a petrol station has been shelled, causing fire, he added.
Ukraine prepares for assault in east
On Thursday, Mr Zelenskyy said that Ukrainian forces were preparing for new Russian attacks in the south-east, where Moscow's guns were now trained after its assault on the capital Kyiv was repelled.
In an early morning video address, Mr Zelenskyy said Russian troop movements away from Kyiv and the northern city of Chernihiv were "the consequence of our defenders' work".
But Ukraine was seeing "a build-up of Russian forces for new strikes on the Donbas and we are preparing for that", he said, referring to the south-eastern region Russia demands Ukraine cede to separatists, where Mariupol is the main port.
Moscow says it is scaling back its offensives near the capital and the north and now focusing on "liberating" Donbas.
Mariupol, once a city of 400,000 people, has been destroyed by four weeks of relentless bombardment and siege.
The United Nations believes thousands of people have died there.
In a part of the city held by Russia, a man named Pavel placed a bowl and spoon as a tribute on a makeshift grave in a patch of grass, marked with a plain wooden cross.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said a team intending to help people leave the besieged city of Mariupol were unable to reach the port city on Friday.
The Red Cross said in a statement that the team hopes to try again on Saturday, local time.
"Arrangements and conditions made it impossible" for the convoy of three vehicles to get safely to Mariupol and they returned to Zaporizhzhia, it said.
Previous attempts to bring aid into besieged parts of the city have failed and civilians have only been able to escape if they have cars.
ABC/wires
