Evacuations in Mariupol fail as peace talks resume

Russian forces are said to have withdrawn from an airport near the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv where there has been fighting since the Feb. 24 invasion, the British defense ministry said Saturday.

Russian forces have withdrawn from Hostomel airport, which is northwest of the capital, the United Kingdom said in an intelligence update.

Ukrainian forces have also re-taken some villages and "secured a key route in eastern Kharkhiv after heavy fighting," the U.K. assessment said.

Kharkhiv is in northeastern Ukraine near the Russian border.

Vice President Kamala Harris reiterated that regime change in Russia is not the policy of the United States, days after the president remarked that Russian President Vladimir Putin should not remain in power.

"Let me be very clear: We are not into regime change, and that is not our policy. Period," Harris said in an interview with MSNBC host Joy Reid that aired Friday.

The comments from the vice president come after President Joe Biden in a speech in Poland last week said, "For God’s sake, this man cannot remain in power," referring to Putin.

A White House official that day said Biden was not calling for Putin to be deposed, and Biden on Monday said that he was not talking about a U.S. policy change.

"I was expressing my outrage. He shouldn’t remain in power, just like bad people shouldn’t continue to do bad things. But it doesn’t mean we have a fundamental policy to do anything to take Putin down in any way," Biden said.

Putin spokesman Dmitry Peskov reacted to Biden's comments in Poland by telling Reuters "that's not for Biden to decide," and that "the president of Russia is elected by Russians." 

Harris said that Russia has committed atrocities in Ukraine, and called Russia's invasion and attack "a war that was instigated — unprovoked, unjustified — against a whole population of people."

Venice is preparing special material to send to Lviv’s National Art Gallery and other museums in the Ukrainian city so artworks can be better protected during the war.

Mariacristina Gribaudi, head of the Venice Civic Museums Foundation, said in a statement Friday that some 65,000 artworks and 2,000 sculptures have been placed in Lviv storerooms as a precaution, but the objects aren’t adequately protected.

The Venice foundation will oversee a shipment of special fabric that can cover paintings and graphic art as well as furniture, costumes and materials made from glass or marble to protect the objects from the majority of solvents and gasses. The fabric also impedes mold and fungus growth while the works are in storage.

Also being sent are polyethylene foam shock-resistant panels.

Venice museums experts also gave advice in a video call with the Lviv gallery’s management about how to best store artworks.

Minefields have been planted in areas where Russian forces have left or been pushed back, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a video address Friday.

He said that in northern Ukraine, Russian forces have either left or been pushed back and "complete catastrophe is left after them."

"Firstly, the airstrikes can continue," Zelenskyy said. "Secondly, they lay minefields on those territories, in houses, on equipment, even on dead bodies. There are a lot of trip wires, a lot of other dangers."

He said in reclaimed territory, people need to wait until the land is cleared of explosives.

There has been some reduction in Russian forces arrayed against Kyiv, the Ukrainian capital, but U.S. military officials said Thursday it had not been a wholesale repositioning. On Friday, the mayor of the town of Bucha, northwest of Kyiv, said it was recaptured by Ukrainian forces.

The U.S. Defense Department on Friday announced it will fulfill a virtual wish list for Ukrainian forces battling Russia's invasion.

The promised goods, worth an estimated $300 million in additional assistance to Ukraine, include laser-guided rocket systems; previously announced armed drones as well as Puma and counter-unmanned drones; armored off-road vehicles; ammunition; machine guns; night-vision devices and more, the department said in a statement.

The hardware will boost the U.S. security commitment to Ukraine to a value of more than $2.3 billion since the beginning of President Joe Biden's administration, the Defense Department said.

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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in a video address Friday accused Russia of trying to recruit residents of Crimea to join its army and urged people there to "sabotage this at any stage."

Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014, in a move that sparked condemnation. Many countries, including the U.S., do not recognize it as part of the Russian Federation and consider it part of Ukraine.

Zelenskyy also referred to conscription inside Russia, saying in Russian: "Warn every such conscript, their parents, we do not need new dead people here."

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday signed a decree for the annual spring draft, in the amount of 134,500, Russia's defense ministry said. There are two drafts a year in Russia. Last year's spring target was slightly higher, at 134,650. 

Putin had pledged that conscripted soldiers would not be used in Ukraine, which Russia invaded on Feb. 24, but the military later acknowledged that Russian military had used conscripted soldiers there and some had been captured.

The Ukrainian military said in a post on Facebook on Friday that due to the “timely and effective response” of air defense forces, a missile attack on the Odesa region did not hit its planned targets. The Ukrainian military said enemy forces had attempted to target “critical infrastructure,” which could have endangered civilians. The situation was under the control of the armed forces of Ukraine, the post said.

Despite a humanitarian group's failed effort to help civilians evacuate Friday from the Ukrainian city of Mariupol, about 771 people were still able to escape from there and more than 6,200 people nationwide fled through humanitarian corridors, a senior government official said.

Many people left using their own cars, although some 42 buses left the city of Berdyansk carrying Mariupol residents en route farther north to the city of Zaporizhia, Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said in a Telegram post.

Ten buses also arrived Friday in Zaporizhia carrying about 80 tons of humanitarian aid, she added.

The latest total evacuees adds to the more than 10 million people who have fled their homes since the invasion began, according to Ukraine's defense ministry.