lurking nearby. he says many civilians remain in the city despite the fighting. look at all those body bags. farther north, ukrainian forces claim they ve retaken a key town near chernihiv. you can see the bombed-out russian tank and ukrainian soldiers on the streets. recapturing the town is crucial to ukraine s push to break russia s encirclement of chernihiv to the north. a cnn team on the ground reports heavy fighting on the outskirts of kyiv, including constant shelling, rocket launches, as well as small arms fire. ukraine s president says russia s pledge to reduce its attacks on the region, clearly, wasn t true. translator: yes, we have negotiations process but they re only words without anything concrete. there are other words about alleged pullback of russian troops from kyiv and chernihiv and reduction of activities of the occupiers in these territories. this is not a retreat.
face with russian soldiers in a gun battle. and why putin s popularity in russia is higher than it s been in years. stunning. let s go out front. good evening. i m erin burnett. breaking news, they re only words from volodymyr zelenskyy. he is calling deescalation by russia after weeks of negotiation just talk. translator: yes, we have negotiations process, but they re only words without anything concrete. we will not give anything away and we will fight for every meter of our land. this comes as we are beginning to see the full scope of the misery and suffering inside ukraine. the pentagon warning tonight the capitol is still very much under threat. just outside kyiv you can hear the sound of explosions, terrifying explosions that rock the suburb of irpin again today.
they re only words without anything concrete. there are other words about alleged pullback of russian troops from kyiv and chernihiv and reduction of activities of the occupiers in these territories. this is not a retreat. this is the result of the work of our defenders who pushed them back. the president there, zelenskyy, praising his troops defense of the key cities like ukraine and other areas. ukraine s defense ministry says russia is continuing, though, its full-scale armed aggression, and the pentagon is reporting no evidence of a russian de-escalation. cnn s phil black has more on the latest fighting. reporter: on the same day russia said it would limit attacks on chernihiv, its forces rained munitions down across shopping and residential areas. russia s purported goodwill
putin s one of the main points of his character s lies, we assume it s a lie and deceit before they do otherwise. christiane, let me get your thoughts on the ongoing negotiations. in a new video message, president zelenskyy says these talks are quote only words without anything concrete. given how often they continue to lie, why should ukraine believe anything they put on the table during these talks? reporter: well, i mean, that s a very good question. to gary s point, after we all heard this news about what russia was saying after the latest round of talks and the deescalation and et cetera, some people got quite optimistic about it. but just in the less than 24 hours, a completely different message has come out, actually from the kremlin. yesterday, they were expressing optimism. today they are saying, no, we haven t seen progress in these talks.
sides agreeing on a corridor to allow escape on buses. and ukrainian emergency services now say 20 people at least killed in a russian strike on the besieged city of mykolayiv, earlier this week. military governor of the second largest city, kharkiv, also saying the region has come under heavier fire. talks between ukraine and russia do go on, but the ukrainian president, volodomyr zelenskyy is not sounding optimistic. translator: yes, we have negotiations process but they re only words without anything concrete. we will not give anything away and fight for every meter of our land. zelenskyy, repeatedly called for face to face meeting with russian president vladimir putin who u.s. officials say is being kept in the dark about how his war is really dark. an assessment that is shared by british intelligence which believes the russian invaders are having serious morale issues. we ve seen russian soldiers short of weapons and morale,