Russia-Ukraine war: What’s ‘clear’ on the ground in Kyiv

Russian troops have retreated from Ukraine’s capital, but it’s not clear who has the upper hand in the bloody war.

Ukrainian authorities have reportedly discovered more than 400 bodies in towns near the capital of Kyiv, as they investigate possible war crimes committed by Russia.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says Vladimir Putin’s assault on his country amounts to genocide.

Channel 7 Europe correspondent Hugh Whitfeld, who is in Kyiv, says it’s “clear on the ground” that Moscow’s troops have retreated around the capital.

“I’ve seen villages where Russian tanks and personnel carriers and the bodies of Russian soldiers have been left behind by the battle they’ve either lost to the Ukrainian soldiers or they’ve simply up and fled in the face of battles,” he told Stephen Quartermain and Emily Power, filling in for Ross and Russel.

“I’ve been here since about March 17 or 18 and for the first 10 days or so that I was here there was this soundtrack every night of constant shelling.

“In the last 48 hours in particular it has struck me that that soundtrack has fallen silent.”

But Mr Whitfeld says the retreat from the capital doesn’t mean the war is over.

“Has the battle been won? Absolutely not because what Moscow tells us, and I think this is what is happening, is that the retreat has occurred around the capital, those troops have gone back up to Belarus but there is a revived assault happening around the east and the south of Ukraine — places like the Donbas, Mariupol, Odessa — where there’s been refreshed airstrikes in the last 24 hours,” he said.

Press PLAY below to hear the latest from Kyiv

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