Retreating Russian troops have been creating a “catastrophic" situation for civilians by leaving mines around homes, abandoned equipment and “even the bodies of those killed", as they pull back from Ukraine's capital region, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned on Saturday. Ukraine and its Western allies reported mounting evidence of Russia withdrawing its forces from around Kyiv and building up troop strength in eastern region of the war-torn country. Ukrainian fighters reclaimed several areas near the capital after forcing the Russians out or moving in after them, officials said. The visible shift did not mean the country faced a reprieve from more than five weeks of war or that the more than four million refugees who have fled Ukraine will return soon. Zelenskyy said he expected departed towns to receive airstrikes and shelling from afar and for the battle in the east to be intense. “It's still not possible to return to normal life, as it used to be, even at the territories that we are taking back after the fighting,” the president told his nation in a nightly video message. "We need wait until our land is demined, wait till we are able to assure you that there won't be new shelling.” Moscow's focus on eastern Ukraine also kept the besieged southern city of Mariupol in the crosshairs.