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

Moscow, on Friday had signalled it was scaling back its military ambitions to focus on territory claimed by Russian-backed separatists in the east.

However, intense fighting was reported in a number of places on Saturday, suggesting there would be no swift let-up in the conflict, which has killed thousands of people, sent nearly 3.8 million abroad and driven more than half of Ukraine's children from their homes, according to the United Nations.

Russian general, Lt Gen Yakov Rezantsev, the commander of Russia's 49th combined army, was killed in a strike near the southern city of Kherson, Ukraine's defence ministry reported.

Chernobyl protests
Russian troops seized the town of Slavutych, which is close to the border with Belarus and is where workers at the nearby Chernobyl plant live, said Oleksandr Pavlyuk, the governor of Kyiv region.

BBC reported that Russian forces had taken control of the city and that the mayor had been taken hostage.

Their actions brought thousands of angry protesters onto the streets, waving Ukrainian flags and chanting patriotic slogans.

Slavutych was built after the 1986 disaster at the Chernobyl nuclear power station, when a reactor exploded releasing radioactive material into the environment.

The site of the power plant itself has been under the control of Russian forces since the first day of the war.

On Friday, the UN's nuclear watchdog warned that fighting in the town was stopping workers from travelling to and from the plant, which still houses several nuclear waste containment facilities.

Chernihiv, the next Mariupol?
In Chernihiv, a besieged city in northern Ukraine sees death everywhere. Similar to Mariupol, the city is blockaded and pounded from afar by Russian troops. Its remaining residents are terrified that each blast, bomb and body that lies uncollected on the streets ensnares them in the same macabre trap of unescapable killings and destruction.

The city is without power, running water and heating. At pharmacies, the lists of medicines no longer available grow longer by the day.

Russian forces have bombed residential areas from low altitude in “absolutely clear weather” and “are deliberately destroying civilian infrastructure – schools, kindergartens, churches, residential buildings and even the local football stadium,” the mayor, Vladyslav Atroshenko told Ukrainian television.

Bombings of hospitals and other non-military sites, including a theater in Mariupol where Ukrainian authorities said a Russian airstrike is believed to have killed some 300 people last week, already have given rise to war crime allegations.

Biden in Poland
US President Joe Biden held talks with Ukraine's defence and foreign ministers in Poland. Biden has been in Poland since Friday and is also meeting the Polish president, Andrzej Duda.

U.S. President Joe Biden, visiting NATO ally Poland, called Russian President Vladimir Putin a "butcher". Biden said he was not sure Russia was changing its strategy in Ukraine to focus on efforts to "liberate" the breakaway eastern Donbass region, despite getting bogged down in some areas.

Zelensky addresses Qatar’s Doha Forum
Ukraine’s president called Saturday on energy-rich nations to increase their production of oil and natural gas to counteract the loss of Russian supplies amid sanctions over Moscow’s war on his country.

Volodymyr Zelenskyy made a surprise video appearance at Qatar’s Doha Forum, an annual summit in the gas-rich nation that will host the 2022 FIFA World Cup later this year. It’s part of a rhetorical offensive of addresses he’s given around the world since the start of the war Feb. 24.

Zelenskyy asked countries to increase their energy exports — something particularly important as Qatar is a world leader in the export of natural gas. Western sanctions have deeply cut into Russian exports, which are crucial for European nations.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy speaks via video call to the Doha Forum in Doha, Qatar, Saturday, March 26, 2022/AP

Zelensky compared Russia’s destruction of the port city of Mariupol to the Syrian and Russian destruction wrought on the city of Aleppo in the Syrian war. He also warned the war could affect Ukraine’s agricultural exports to the world, which he described as “the basis of stability and internal security of many countries.”

Zelenskyy on Friday spoke by phone with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi, a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Also on hand was Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan, the top diplomat for the world’s biggest oil exporter. Saudi Arabia so far has said it would stick with an OPEC+ production schedule the cartel struck with Russia and other producers.
-AP/Reuters/BBC