Ukraine: What happened today, Saturday, April 2?

Ukrainian soldiers approach a trench that had been used by Russian soldiers as they retake an area on the outskirts of Kyiv, Ukraine. Picture: AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd

Ukrainian forces were advancing on Saturday into areas north of Kyiv as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy accused departing Russian soldiers of leaving behind mines.

A Red Cross convoy was heading to Mariupol, set to try again to evacuate civilians from the besieged port.

Ukrainian forces retake areas near Kyiv amid fear of traps 

Military gear left by Russian soldiers are seen during a military sweep to search for possible remnants of Russian troops after their withdrawal from villages on the outskirts of Kyiv. Picture: AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd

Ukrainian troops have moved to retake territory north of the country’s capital amid fears that Russian forces might have set booby-traps before leaving.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned in his nightly video address hours earlier that departing Russian troops were creating a “catastrophic” situation for civilians by leaving mines around homes, abandoned equipment and “even the bodies of those killed”.

Journalists in Bucha, a suburb north-west of Kyiv, watched as Ukrainian soldiers backed by a column of tanks and other armoured vehicles used cables to drag bodies off of a street from a distance, fearing they might have been rigged to explode.

Locals said the dead were civilians who were killed by departing Russian soldiers without provocation.

Ukraine and its Western allies reported mounting evidence of Russia withdrawing its forces from around Kyiv and building its troop strength in eastern Ukraine.

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.

Mr Zelenskyy said he expects departed towns to endure missile strikes and rocket strikes from afar and for the battle in the east to be intense.

208 detained in anti-war protests in Russia 

A participant of a peace march holds a poster with the slogan "Russians are against the war" near the Russian Consulate General cordoned off by police in Frankfurt, Germany. Picture: Frank Rumpenhorst/dpa via AP

A Russian group that monitors political arrests says 208 people were detained in demonstrations held Saturday across the country protesting Russia’s military operation in Ukraine.

The OVD-Info group said demonstrations took place in 17 Russian cities, from Siberia to the more densely populated west.

More than 70 people were detained in Moscow and a similar number in St Petersburg, the organization said.

Video released by another group that monitors protests, Avtozak, showed some detainees being led to police prisoner transports as they smiled and carried flowers.

Others were shown to be more harshly forced into the transports, bent over with their arms pinioned behind them.

Russian President Vladimir Putin’s government has cracked down heavily on dissent, even before Russia invaded Ukraine in February.

Pope condemns Putin over Russia’s ‘infantile’ war in Ukraine 

Pope Francis, center, with, from left, Malta Prime Minister Robert Abela, with daughter Giorgia Mae, and Malta's President George William Vella, right, looks at a cheering crowd from a balcony of the Grand Master's Palace in Valletta, Malta. Picture: AP Photo/Andrew Medichini

Pope Francis has said he is considering a visit to Kyiv as he condemned Russian President Vladimir Putin for launching a “savage” war.

Speaking after his arrival in Malta, he delivered his most pointed and personalised denunciation yet of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Francis did not cite the Russian president by name, but the reference was clear when he said “some potentate” had unleashed the threat of nuclear war on the world in an “infantile and destructive aggression” under the guise of “anachronist claims of nationalistic interests”.

“We had thought that invasions of other countries, savage street fighting and atomic threats were grim memories of a distant past,” Francis told Maltese officials and diplomats on the Mediterranean island nation at the start of a weekend visit.

Francis has so far avoided referring to Russia or Mr Putin by name, but Saturday’s personalisation of the powerful figure responsible marked a new level of outrage for the pontiff.

Future of International Space Station in the balance, says Russian official 

Agency chief Dmitry Rogozin implied on Russian state TV that the western sanctions, some of which pre-date Russia’s military action in Ukraine, could disrupt the operation of Russian spacecraft servicing the ISS. Picture: NASA via AP

Russia’s top space official says the future of the International Space Station hangs in the balance after the US, the EU and Canadian space agencies missed a deadline for the lifting of sanctions on Russian enterprises and hardware.

The head of Russia’s Roscosmos state agency told reporters on Saturday morning that the agency was preparing a report on the prospects of international co-operation at the station, to be presented to federal authorities “after Roscosmos has completed its analysis”.

Agency chief Dmitry Rogozin implied on Russian state TV that the western sanctions, some of which pre-date Russia’s military action in Ukraine, could disrupt the operation of Russian spacecraft servicing the ISS.

He stressed that western partners need the ISS and “cannot manage without Russia, because no one but us can deliver fuel to the station”.