What 1 April 2022 showed about the Kyiv front

What did the situation around Kyiv look like on 1 April 2022? It was a day of recaptured towns near the capital, a lost city in the east, and diplomacy that continued by video link.

The Kyiv area

Ukrainian forces recaptured Bucha, in Kyiv Oblast, from Russian troops on 1 April 2022. In Irpin, the mayor, Oleksandr Markushyn, confirmed that the city had been fully liberated after the last Russian troops were driven out. As background to Irpin, Ukrainian forces had retaken the city by 28 March 2022, so the mayor's confirmation came after the main recapture.

The day before, the International Atomic Energy Agency confirmed that Russian forces had handed control of the former Chernobyl nuclear power plant back to Ukraine. Energoatom said the troops who had occupied the plant had left the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone. Russian troops also withdrew from Slavutych, returning to Belarus. On 30 March, Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk had called on Russia to pull its troops out of the zone and the plant. Russian forces had seized the zone on 24 February, the first day of the invasion, having entered from Belarus. On 31 March it was reported that most of the Russian troops there had withdrawn as the Russian military abandoned the Kyiv offensive to focus on operations in eastern Ukraine.

The human cost of the fighting near Kyiv was also visible on 1 April. The body of Reuters journalist Maks Levin was found in Huta Mezhyhirska, near the capital. He had disappeared several days earlier and was the sixth journalist killed in Ukraine since the invasion began.

Elsewhere

In the east, Ukrainian military officials confirmed that Izium had officially fallen under Russian control, ending a month-long battle for the city.

Russia claimed that the Ukrainian Air Force had struck Belgorod and hit several fuel facilities. Videos on social media showed low-flying attack helicopters firing rockets at a fuel depot in the city.

Mariupol and the talks

On 31 March, Ukrainian officials said a large humanitarian convoy of 45 buses had set out for Mariupol to bring supplies and evacuate residents short of food, water and electricity. Vereshchuk had said buses were sent to evacuate citizens. According to the officials, Russian forces blocked the convoy near Berdiansk. The same day, Russia's Ministry of Defence said its forces would reopen a humanitarian corridor from Mariupol to Zaporizhzhia the following day, at the request of the leaders of France and Germany.

Ceasefire talks between the Russian and Ukrainian delegations resumed by video link on 1 April 2022.

Reading the day

Taken together, these events show a front in transition. Russian forces were leaving positions around Kyiv and Chernobyl, while Izium fell and Mariupol remained besieged, with its evacuation efforts obstructed. Negotiations went on alongside the fighting.