INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Ukrainian forces recaptured a key Kyiv suburb and desperately clung onto control of the besieged city of Mariupol, as negotiators prepared
to meet Russian counterparts for face-to-face talks in Istanbul Tuesday.Troops "liberated" the suburban town of Irpin, Interior Minister
shelling in the area and encountered fleeing residents, who described hellish scenes of bombs raining from the sky and people killed in cold
blood while trying to escape."We saw those cars which tried to get out on their own, they were crushed by tanks, with people inside," said
55-year-old Roman Molchanov, his voice cracking with emotion.His sister added that the "Russian orcs" had "shot dead people sitting in their
cars."Western experts described the loss of Irpin as a significant setback for Russian forces, who are still trying to regroup and after a
failed first attempt to encircle the capital.It is now more than a month since Russian President Vladimir Putin's tanks rolled into Ukraine,
Russian negotiators will resume peace talks on Tuesday, under the shadow of shock allegations that delegates were poisoned at a previous
round of negotiations.Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich and Ukrainian negotiators were said to have been targeted earlier this month, the
the negotiators reportedly developed symptoms including red eyes and peeling skin, though they later recovered.Ukraine played down the
allegations and Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said the Istanbul talks would focus on easing the humanitarian situation, and sounded a note
of skepticism about the hopes for success."If we see that the mood has changed and they are ready for a serious, substantive conversation
and balanced arrangements, then things will move forward," he said."If it is a repetition of their propaganda," then, he said, talks will
again fail.Putin has demanded the "demilitarization and denazification of Ukraine," as well as the imposition of neutral status and
recognition of the Donbas and Crimea as no longer part of Ukraine.Kuleba indicated there was little room for agreement there: "We do not
trade people, land and sovereignty
believe that Russia wants to take the capital Kyiv, dismissing suggestions the Kremlin is focused on the eastern Donbas region.Capturing
"Kyiv is essentially a captured Ukraine, and this is their goal," said deputy defense minister Ganna Malyar, insisting Russia was still
80,000 homes, officials said, underscoring the continued peril facing the capital.While Ukraine's forces are counterattacking in the north,
they are struggling to retain control of the southern port city of Mariupol.Russian forces have encircled the city and have embarked on a
steady and indiscriminate bombardment, trapping an estimated 160,000 people with little food, water or medicine.At least 5,000 people have
already died, according to one senior Ukrainian official who estimated the real toll may be closer to 10,000 when all the bodies are
collected."The burials stopped 10 days ago because of continued shelling," Tetyana Lomakina, a presidential adviser now in charge of
humanitarian corridors, told AFP by phone Monday.Local lawmaker Kateryna Sukhomlynova told AFP that unburied bodies line streets and
"catastrophic," saying Russia's assault from land, sea and air had turned a city once home to 450,000 people "into dust."France, Greece and
Turkey are hoping to launch a mass evacuation of civilians from Mariupol within days, according to French President Emmanuel Macron, who is
seeking agreement from Putin.But as the ground war has stalled and Russian casualties have mounted, Moscow appears to have turned to
ever-more brutal tactics.Western powers say they have seen evidence of war crimes, which are already being investigated by the International
Criminal Court.On Monday, Ukraine's prosecutor general, Iryna Venediktova, said there was proof that Russian forces have used banned cluster
bombs in the southern Odessa and Kherson areas.And Britain's defenses ministry said that private Russian military firm Wagner Group has
headed to eastern Ukraine, where "they are expected to deploy more than 1,000 mercenaries, including senior leaders of the organization, to
undertake combat operations."Reputed to be close to Putin, the Wagner Group and its mercenaries are suspected of widespread abuses in Mali,
President Joe Biden's has expressed his "moral outrage" at the conduct of the war, and ruffled feathers by suggesting Putin "cannot remain
in power."He has since denied seeking regime change and swatted away concern that his remarks would ratchet up tensions with
counter Moscow's influence.
