Russia-Ukraine war live updates: Zelenskyy warns Russian ...

The Associated PressKYIV, Ukraine — Russian troops are withdrawing from around Ukraine’s second-largest city after bombarding it for weeks, the Ukrainian military said Saturday, as Kyiv and Moscow’s forces engaged in a grinding battle for the country’s eastern industrial heartland.Ukraine’s general staff said the Russian forces were pulling back from the northeastern city of Kharkiv and focusing on guarding supply routes, while launching mortar, artillery and airstrikes in the eastern province of Donetsk in order to “deplete Ukrainian forces and destroy fortifications.”Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov said Ukraine was “entering a new — long-term — phase of the war.”President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, meanwhile, said Ukrainians were doing their “maximum” to drive out the invaders and that the outcome of the war would depend on support from Europe and other allies.Jason AbbruzzeseFinnish President Sauli Niinistö had a phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin about his country's move to join NATO, he said Saturday. "And of the American people." Henry AustinThe West has announced a “total hybrid war” against Russia and it was hard to predict how long it would last, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Saturday.Everyone would feel the consequences of this war, he said, adding that efforts by the West to isolate Russia were doomed to fail, a reference to sanctions over Ukraine.“We have done everything we can to avoid a direct clash, but the challenge has been thrown to us so accepted it,” he said. We will fight for the lives of our military, just as they are defending our city,”ReutersUkraine’s president said very difficult talks were underway on evacuating “a large number” of wounded soldiers from a besieged steelworks in the strategic southeastern port of Mariupol in return for the release of Russian prisoners of war.Mariupol, which has seen the heaviest fighting in nearly three months of war, is now in Russian hands but hundreds of Ukrainian defenders are still holding out at the Azovstal steelworks despite weeks of heavy Russian bombardment.Fierce Ukrainian resistance, which military analysts say President Vladimir Putin and his generals failed to anticipate when they launched the invasion on Feb. 24, has also slowed and in some places reversed Russian advances around Ukraine.“At the moment very complex negotiations are under way on the next phase of the evacuation mission — the removal of the badly wounded, medics,” President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in a late night address.Officials store bodies of Russian soldiers in refrigerator railway wagons in Kyiv, on Friday. Associated PressTurkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Friday that his country is “not favorable” toward Finland and Sweden joining NATO, indicating Turkey could use its membership in the Western military alliance to veto moves to admit the two countries.“We are following developments concerning Sweden and Finland, but we are not of a favorable opinion,” Erdogan told reporters.The Turkish leader explained his opposition by citing Sweden and other Scandinavian countries’ alleged support for Kurdish militants and others whom Turkey considers to be terrorists.Associated PressPresident Volodymyr Zelenskyy said although Ukrainians are doing everything they can to drive out the Russians, “no one today can predict how long this war will last.”“This will depend, unfortunately, not only on our people, who are already giving their maximum,” he said in his nightly video address to the nation.