Intensified bombardment could be heard in Kyiv on Wednesday morning from suburbs where Ukrainian forces have regained territory in recent days. Windows rattled from the relentless artillery on its outskirts.

Southeast of Irpin, a Kyiv suburb which has seen intense fighting for weeks, frequent shelling and ordnance exploding on the ground and in the air could be heard. Ukrainians evacuating spoke of heavy shelling north of Irpin and shells landing in Irpin itself. Ukraine and Western leaders had cautioned that Moscow's apparent peace gesture at Tuesday's talks in Istanbul was a cover for reorganizing forces that had failed to take Kyiv.

Russia said on Wednesday its forces had achieved their objectives near Kyiv and Chernihiv and were regrouping to focus on the "liberation" of the breakaway eastern Donbas region.
The Pentagon said that Russia had started to reposition under a fifth of its forces arrayed around Kyiv, but warned Moscow was expected to refit and resupply them for redeployment.