TOP HEADLINES

• Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the past year had been "the most horrific" in the lives of many residents of the Kyiv region, where Russian troops are accused of committing war crimes. READ MORE BELOW

• Ukraine acknowledged some Russian gains inside the eastern battlefield city of Bakhmut, while insisting it was inflicting greater losses on the Russian attackers than its own forces were taking in defense.

• Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said Moscow remained in talks with the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency about a safety zone around the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant controlled by Russia in Ukraine, Russian news agencies reported.

• Türkiye was set on Thursday to become the final NATO nation to approve Finland's membership of the U.S.-led defense alliance.

• The UK and Germany stand united with Ukraine in its defense against Russia, King Charles III said in Berlin on Wednesday on his first foreign visit as monarch. 

• Poland's Prime Minister has appealed to Brussels to limit the amount of Ukrainian grain entering the European Union, saying it was destabilizing local markets.

IN DETAIL

Zelenskyy reflects on 'horrific' year for Kyiv

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the past year had been "the most horrific" in the lives of many residents of the Kyiv region, where Russian troops are accused of committing war crimes before withdrawing a year ago.

The Ukrainian military recaptured the small towns of Irpin and Bucha outside the capital, Kyiv, in late March last year.

International investigators are now collecting evidence in Irpin, Bucha and other places where Ukraine says Russian troops committed large-scale atrocities. Russia denies the allegations.

"For many residents of the Kyiv region, the past year has become the most horrific in their entire lives," Zelenskyy wrote on the Telegram messaging app. 

"The liberation of the Kyiv region has become a symbol of the fact that Ukraine will be able to win this war.

"Events that could not be imagined in the 21st century have become a reality in the satellite cities of Kyiv – Bucha and Irpin. Russian troops marched on the Ukrainian capital from the north and brought death and destruction."

Zelenskyy wrote his Telegram post under video footage showing heavily damaged buildings and vehicles that had been destroyed in Bucha and Irpin.

The video also included interviews with survivors recalling their experiences during the occupation, and footage of corpses lined up on the ground in black body bags.

The video, compiled by the Ukrainian fundraising initiative UNITED24, put the civilian death toll in areas of the Kyiv region liberated from Russian forces at 1,137, including 461 killed in Bucha alone.

The Russian forces were halted outside the capital in February last year and later pulled back, but the Kyiv region is still frequently the target of missile and drone strikes as battles rage elsewhere.

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