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KYIV, Ukraine (AP) Russian troops handed control of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant back to the Ukrainians and left the heavily contaminated site early Friday, more than a month after taking it over, Ukrainian authorities said, as fighting raged on the outskirts of Kyiv and other fronts.

Ukraines state power company, Energoatom, said the pullout at Chernobyl came after soldiers received significant doses of radiation from digging trenches in the forest in the exclusion zone around the closed plant. But there was no independent confirmation of that.

The withdrawal took place amid growing indications the Kremlin is using talk of de-escalation in Ukraine as cover while regrouping, resupplying its forces and redeploying them for a stepped-up offensive in the eastern part of the country.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russian withdrawals from the north and center of the country were just a military tactic and that the forces are building up for new powerful attacks in the southeast.

We know their intentions, Zelenskyy said in his nightly video address to the nation. We know that they are moving away from those areas where we hit them in order to focus on other, very important ones where it may be difficult for us.

There will be battles ahead, he added.

Meanwhile, a convoy of 45 buses headed to Mariupol in another bid to evacuate people from the besieged port city after the Russian military agreed to a limited cease-fire in the area. But Russian forces blocked the buses, and only 631 people were able to get out of the city in private cars, according to the Ukrainian government.

Twelve Ukrainian buses were able to deliver 14 tons of food and medical supplies to Mariupol, but the aid was seized by Russian troops, Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said late Thursday.

The city has been the scene of some of the worst suffering of the war. Tens of thousands have managed to get out of Mariupol in the past few weeks by way of humanitarian corridors, reducing its population from a prewar 430,000 to an estimated 100,000 as of last week, but other relief efforts have been thwarted by continued Russian attacks.

A new round of talks was scheduled for Friday, five weeks into the war that has left thousands dead and driven 4 million Ukrainians from the country.

The International Atomic Energy Agency said it had been informed by Ukraine that the Russian forces at the site of the worlds worst nuclear disaster had transferred control of it in writing to the Ukrainians.

The last Russian troops left the Chernobyl plant early Friday, the Ukrainian government agency responsible for the exclusion zone said.

Energoatom gave no details on the condition of the soldiers it said were exposed to radiation and did not say how many were affected. There was no immediate comment from the Kremlin, and the IAEA said it had not been able to confirm the reports of Russian troops receiving high doses. It said it was seeking more information.

Russian forces seized the Chernobyl site in the opening stages of the Feb. 24 invasion, raising fears that they would cause damage or disruption that could spread radiation. The workforce at the site oversees the safe storage of spent fuel rods and the concrete-entombed ruins of the reactor that exploded in 1986.

Edwin Lyman, a nuclear expert with the U.S.-based Union of Concerned Scientists, said it seems unlikely a large number of troops would develop severe radiation illness, but it was impossible to know for sure without more details.

He said contaminated material was probably buried or covered with new topsoil during the cleanup of Chernobyl, and some soldiers may have been exposed to a hot spot of radiation while digging. Others may have assumed they were at risk too, he said.

Early this week, the Russians said they would significantly scale back military operations in areas around Kyiv and the northern city of Chernihiv to increase trust between the two sides and help negotiations along.

But in the Kyiv suburbs, regional governor Oleksandr Palviuk said on social media Thursday that Russian forces shelled Irpin and Makariv and that there were battles around Hostomel. Pavliuk said there were Ukrainian counterattacks and some Russian withdrawals around the suburb of Brovary to the east.

Chernihiv came under attack as well. At least one person was killed and four were wounded in the Russian shelling of a humanitarian convoy of buses sent to Chernihiv to evacuate residents cut off from food, water and other supplies, said Ukrainian Human Rights Commissioner Lyudmyla Denisova

Ukraine also reported Russian artillery barrages in and around the northeastern city of Kharkiv.

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said intelligence indicates Russia is not scaling back its military operations in Ukraine but is instead trying to regroup, resupply its forces and reinforce its offensive in the Donbas.

Russia has repeatedly lied about its intentions, Stoltenberg said. At the same time, he said, pressure is being kept up on Kyiv and other cities, and we can expect additional offensive actions bringing even more suffering.

The Donbas is the predominantly Russian-speaking industrial region where Moscow-backed separatists have been battling Ukrainian forces since 2014. In the past few days, the Kremlin, in a seeming shift in its war aims, said that its main goal now is gaining control of the Donbas, which consists of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, including Mariupol.

The top rebel leader in Donetsk, Denis Pushilin, issued an order to set up a rival city government for Mariupol, according to Russian state news agencies, in a sign of Russian intent to hold and administer the city.

With talks set to resume between Ukraine and Russia via video, there seemed little faith that the two sides would resolve the conflict any time soon.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said that conditions werent yet ripe for a cease-fire and that he wasnt ready for a meeting with Zelenskyy until negotiators do more work, Italian Premier Mario Draghi said after a telephone conversation with the Russian leader.

In other developments, Ukraines emergency services said the death toll had risen to 20 in a Russian missile strike Tuesday on a government administration building in the southern city of Mykolaiv.

As Western officials search for clues about what Russias next move might be, a top British intelligence official said demoralized Russian soldiers in Ukraine are refusing to carry out orders and sabotaging their equipment and had accidentally shot down their own aircraft.

In a speech in Australia, Jeremy Fleming, head of the GCHQ electronic spy agency, said Putin had apparently massively misjudged the invasion.

The Pentagon reported Thursday that an initial half-dozen shipments of weapons and other security assistance from the U.S. have reached Ukraine as part of an $800 million aid package President Joe Biden approved this month.

The shipments included Javelin anti-tank weapons, Stinger anti-aircraft missile systems, body armor, medical supplies and other materials, Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said.

U.S. intelligence officials have concluded that Putin is being misinformed by his advisers about how badly the war is going because they are afraid to tell him the truth.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that the U.S. is wrong and that neither the State Department nor the Pentagon possesses the real information about what is happening in the Kremlin.

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Karmanau reported from Lviv, Ukraine. Associated Press journalists around the world contributed to this report.

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Follow the APs coverage of the war at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine

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Russians leave Chernobyl site as fighting rages elsewhere - The Associated Press

Signs with the message 'Now Hiring' are displayed in front of restaurants in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, on March 19. Stefani Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images hide caption

Signs with the message 'Now Hiring' are displayed in front of restaurants in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, on March 19.

U.S. employers added jobs at a healthy clip in March, despite the economic shock following Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

The Labor Department reported Friday that employers added 431,000 jobs last month, as the unemployment rate fell to 3.6% from 3.8% in February. Employment gains for January and February were also revised upwards by a total of 95,000 jobs.

The job growth in March was widespread with bars and restaurants adding 61,000 jobs, retailers adding 49,000 and manufacturers adding 38,000 jobs.

The job market remains unusually tight, which is putting upward pressure on both wages and prices and fueling inflation worries at the Federal Reserve.

"This is a labor market that is out of balance," Fed chairman Jerome Powell said last week. "It's great for workers. But we need the labor market to be sustainably tight."

Powell and his colleagues worry that if high inflation goes unchecked, it will ultimately derail the jobs recovery. Prices in February were up 6.4% from a year ago, according to the Fed's preferred inflation measure the sharpest increase since 1982.

The central bank began raising interest rates in March in an effort to cool off demand and rein in prices. Powell has said more aggressive rate hikes could be in store in the coming months.

A separate report from the Labor Department this week showed vacant jobs outnumbered unemployed workers by nearly two to one. Employers have been forced to offer substantial pay raises in an effort to attract scarce workers.

"We don't expect to see wage pressures fall any time soon," said Julia Pollak, chief economist for the job search website ZipRecruiter." "On the contrary, what we are seeing is wage growth pressures broaden."

Wages have risen by an average of 5.6% over the last twelve months.

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell speaks during a luncheon at the 2022 NABE Economic Policy Conference at the Ritz-Carlton in Washington, D.C., on March 21 Samuel Corum/Getty Images hide caption

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell speaks during a luncheon at the 2022 NABE Economic Policy Conference at the Ritz-Carlton in Washington, D.C., on March 21

There are encouraging signs that more people may be joining the workforce as the health outlook improves.

Friday's report showed the number of people working or looking for work grew by 418,000 in March, though the labor force is still somewhat smaller than it was before the pandemic.

In February, nearly 8 million people were not working because they were sick with COVID-19 or caring for someone who was sick. By March, that number had fallen to less than 3 million, according to the Census Bureau.

Pollak also points to a ZipRecruiter survey which found more people expect to enter the job market this year.

"The Great Return is the new labor market story," Pollak said. "People have had enough of sitting around doing nothing. Also, with COVID relief payments fading away, people are starting to feel a little bit more financial pressure to come back to work."

There is also significant churn in the job market, with millions of workers quitting each month in many cases to switch to a better job. Layoffs, on the other hand, are rare, as employers are eager to hang on to the workers they already have.

"People have confidence that they can leave their old job and find new ones," said economist Nick Bunker of the Indeed Hiring Lab. "Those who stay are seeing a level of security that we haven't seen in a long time."

The challenge of finding workers may push some employers to invest in more labor-saving technology, which would allow the existing workforce to be more productive.

"I do think that will happen in the service industries," Powell told a gathering of business economists last week. "So you may well have productivity there, which would be great. That would make these high wage increases that we're seeing more sustainable."

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Employers continue hiring spree despite the war in Ukraine - NPR

For years, Oksana Baulina did her best to stand up to Vladimir Putins system in Russia, and was eventually forced to flee the country. Last week, she was killed by a Russian missile, soon after arriving in Kyiv to report on Vladimir Putins invasion.

The death of Baulina, a former associate of opposition politician Alexei Navalny who was working for the Russian news outlet The Insider, has put the spotlight on the tiny group of independent Russian journalists now inside Ukraine.

In their work, they are attempting to break through the Kremlins stranglehold on information about events in the country, which official Russian media insists on calling a special operation to liberate Ukraine from Nazis.

Colleagues paid tribute to Baulina as a passionate and fierce reporter, who had given up a life working in glossy magazines to stand up for what she believed in.

I met her a few days before her death, I was probably the only person from her previous life that she met here, and she was explaining in great detail her plans, she was just so enthusiastic and really wanting to do the reporting, said Peter Verzilov, an activist and journalist who is the publisher of news site Mediazona, in an interview in Lviv.

Mediazona, like many Russian-language news outlets, was blocked by the Russian internet watchdog in the early days of the war for not adhering to wartime censorship rules that ban any information that could discredit Russias army.

Despite the block, during the last month our readership numbers went up almost twice, to about 3.5 million unique visitors this month, said Verzilov.

Nevertheless, Verzilov said it was clear that Russian state messaging was working on a large number of Russians, pointing to the numerous stories of Ukrainians contacting friends or relatives in Russia and being told they were imagining the things they could see with their own eyes.

When your own son is telling you, Dad, do not believe the fucking television, its not true, and you say No, no, Nazis are just brainwashing you, it does show that Russian propaganda is amazingly effective for certain portions of the population. It really does work, when youre switching between channels and all of them have the same content, said Verzilov.

Other journalists agreed that cutting through the state-sponsored noise was getting ever harder. Last weekend, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy gave an interview to several independent Russian outlets, and Russian authorities immediately announced any site that published it could face criminal responsibility.

The people who say, theres plenty of information on the internet, they just dont understand what theyre talking about. My twin sister asked me how to watch Zelenskiy, she just had no idea how to find it, said Yevgenia Albats, a veteran Russian journalist who edits the New Times website.

Albats said 741 websites have been shut down in Russia since the beginning of the war, and said the effect was hard to overstate. The New Times was blocked on the second day of the war. Albats is still updating the website using a VPN, though four of her employees have left the country.

Basically, its a total evaporation of any alternative news or opinions in the Russian language media sphere. Total destruction. Annihilation of any alternative views and opinions.

A singular exception has been the reporting filed from Ukraine by Elena Kostyuchenko, a resourceful and fearless reporter for Russias Novaya Gazeta, whose editor-in-chief Dmitry Muratov won the Nobel prize last year.

Kostyuchenko was initially turned away from the border when she tried to cross from Poland on the first day of the war, but was let in after the editorial board made some phone calls. Since then, she has been in southern Ukraine. She has filed moving reports from Mykolaiv, which has been under intense Russian attack, and Kherson, currently occupied by Russian troops.

Every day, I see the crimes my country is committing. Every day I see injured people, dead people, destroyed houses, I spoke in Kherson with people who lived through kidnappings, she said, in a telephone interview from Mykolaiv.

Its morally difficult, but I think it would have been morally more difficult to sit in Moscow and follow it on internet, she said.

Once inside Ukraine, Kostyuchenko said she did not have problems working with a Russian passport, once she had explained she was from Novaya Gazeta.

The majority of people understand why Im here, support what Im doing and support me hugely, she said.

Novaya Gazeta took the decision to follow Russian censorship laws, not using the word war or occupation but instead leaving blank spaces where the forbidden sections would go.

Kostyuchenko said she wrote her texts without censorship and they were then redacted by editors in consultations with lawyers.

If the law was formulated to only put journalists in prison, inside the office we would publish everything, but the law is formulated so all the people associated with the text: proofreaders, internet managers and the accountants, could be responsible, said Kostyuchenko.

We had a meeting inside the editorial board. We had two options: close or to continue working in the regime of military censorship. More than 90% of readers voted for us to keep on working, she said.

This did not save the publication, however, and earlier this week Muratov announced that Novaya would be closing until the end of the special operation in Ukraine.

Many independent journalists have left Russia altogether, in fear of being jailed under the new laws. Albats said she had no plans to leave Moscow, but was crying every day over what had become of Russia, and the fact her country was waging a war of conquest.

We are destroying another country and killing people. And this is unbearable. I understand that what Im doing is basically almost useless. I do this because otherwise Im going to hang myself, she said.

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Russian reporters in Ukraine: Every day I see dead and injured - The Guardian

Ukraine could face England, the United States of America and Iran at the 2022 World Cup, should they progress beyond their postponed European play-off tie.

Ukraines UEFA play-off semi-final match against Scotland was originally scheduled for March 24 but was postponed last month after Russia launched an invasion of its neighbouring country.

The postponement also prevented Wales from playing their next play-off match, as they had been due to take on the winners of Ukraines game against Scotland after their defeat of Austria.

It is hoped the matches can eventually take place in the summer. But the situation remains uncertain as the Russian invasion of Ukraine continues.

The tournaments opening match will see hosts Qatar, whose staging of the World Cup finals has proven controversial for the reasons examined in this article, face Ecuador in Al Khor on November 21.

Kick-off times and venues for the remaining group-stage matches are yet to be decided.

The Ukraine football authorities made a request to FIFA to postpone the game scheduled for March 24 at Hampden Park, which was granted.

The request was made after Russia launched its invasion of the country.

Both of Scotlands national team captains, Andy Robertson and Rachel Corsie, expressed solidarity with Ukraines footballers ahead of the decision.

Thats uncertain.

Provisional UEFA and FIFA plans involve Scotland facing Ukraine on a June date originally intended for Nations League fixtures.

It is then hoped the winners could face Wales days later for a World Cup place.

But Scotlands national team coach, Steve Clarke, said he was doubtful the match could take place in the summer.

The very short answer is no, he said when asked last month whether there had been an update on the play-off. I would imagine everyone is waiting until this round of matches is out of the way and then see how the situation develops. But, obviously, its not looking great at this moment.

If youre asking me now will the game go ahead in June then its going to be difficult.

Ukraines coach, Oleksandr Petrakov, has expressed similar doubts.

As long as people in my country continue to die, I cannot think about playing the game in Scotland, Petrakov said in an interview with Ukrainian TV station Football 1.

We still have April and May to come, and we will see what happens then, but we are supposed to playing Scotland in June as well as Nations League games.

But we can't think about them at the moment given the current situation.

The UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson was asked at NATO headquarters in Brussels if Ukraine should get an automatic place at the World Cup and said it sounds like a good idea.

Former Scottish First Minister Henry McLeish added: It is time for FIFA to step up and say to Ukraine the pressure is off you will be at the World Cup and we will be adding an extra team to the draw to make sure nobody else has to be ejected.

It is not clear how such plans would work, however.

(Photo: Isabella Bonotto/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

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England and United States could face Ukraine at World Cup 2022 - The Athletic

When the war broke out in the early hours of 24 February, Oleksandr Petrakov, the manager of Ukraines mens national football team, chose not to leave his home in the capital, Kyiv, as the Russians advanced and shells dropped, but to try to join the fight.

My family told me to go to western Ukraine but I refused. I said: I am from Kyiv, I cant leave, says Petrakov. I didnt think it would be correct as people have to defend and I cant run. I thought, if they come to Kyiv I will pick up a weapon and defend my city.

He adds: I am 64 but I felt it was normal to do this. I think I could take two or three enemies out.

A Russian speaker from childhood, Petrakov now sticks to Ukrainian in public and while some are sad about Vladimir Putins war and others are angry, he admits to a more visceral emotion. Its just hate. It is not anger, but people hate those who invaded their land. We need time to calm down but for now it is just hate. They have broken our countries for years.

Petrakov tried to sign up to Ukraines territorial defence, the reservists being deployed across the country to fight the Russians. He spoke to a member of Ukraines government but was advised that his lack of military experience was an issue and that he might be better employed elsewhere.

I was told: You have to sign a contract and someone will command you. He said: I know you, that would be very hard. You dont need this, you are another kind of person. And Im 64, you understand?

Petrakov, who took over from the former Chelsea striker Andriy Shevchenko as manager last August, is instead trying to get Ukraines mens team, for all the horrors of the last five weeks, to this Novembers World Cup. The team were due to play Scotland in a play-off qualifier in Hampden Park in Glasgow on 24 March but it was postponed.

A new fixture is pencilled in for sometime in June. Petrakov says he believes it will be honoured although there are serious obstacles that he hopes the likes of Uefa and major European clubs such as Manchester United might help him overcome.

Competitive football is banned among those between 18 and 60 who can fight, under an order from Ukraines president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy. Those who play their football in the domestic league are scattered across the country, unable to train properly. Petrakov initially proposed a training camp for those in the domestic league in the relative safety of western Ukraine.

But there is also shelling in western Ukraine. And if someone says that the national team training camp has started, the enemies could start shelling us. These people are without morals, or principles, and we couldnt risk our players. The Russians are not our brothers, they are the horde.

The Ukrainian football association is instead on Petrakovs advice trying to arrange with Uefa both a camp outside of Ukraine, possibly in the UK, and friendly fixtures with the likes of Bayern Munich, Manchester United, Manchester City, Arsenal, with the proceeds of the games going to support the Ukrainian armed forces.

Petrakov says he has 11 players in his squad playing outside Ukraine, including the Premier League, but 26 inside who need match practice. We could play at Wembley, for example, against a London club. It could be a good exhibition game, a response for the Ukrainian army, as well as preparatory work for the Scotland game.

Petrakov says he needs five or six games to return his team to fitness. We have to play because without the [practice] games, it would be very hard to get to play with Scotland, he says.

He has weekly phone calls with players including the West Ham winger Andriy Yarmolenko and Manchester Citys midfielder Oleksandr Zinchenko.

Theyre calling to me, saying please be safe, we couldnt bear it if you were killed. Youre staying in dangerous zone. But it is easier here. If I were there, it would be harder. Mostly, all the parents of these players are staying in Ukraine. The players worry.

Other players and ex-internationals have joined in the fighting, including Andriy Bogdanov, 32, and Oleksandr Aliyev, 37.

The idea of Ukraine playing Russia on the football field again is anathema to Petrakov. I wouldnt want this to happen while I am still alive. I dont [want] to shake hands with these guys We have to build a great wall and do what we can do to separate from them.

Petrakov, who won the under-20 World Cup for Ukraine in 2019, is full of admiration for Zelenskiys leadership. When we won the cup, he had become president and he called up and I didnt even know his name and surname. I just called him my president, says Petrakov, laughing.

But the war rages on. Petrakovs daughter, Viktoria, 32, and son Yevhen, 41, and his four-year-old grandson are in relative safety in the west of the country. But in their flat in Kyiv, his wife, Irina, 66, struggles with the sounds of war.

She cant bear the shelling and explosions and at 8pm she goes down to the shelter with the dog. I stay in the flat. It would be better for me to fight somebody if I could.

The rest is here:
We could play at Wembley: Ukraine manager on war, the World Cup and his hatred of Russia - The Guardian