Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has dismissed Russia's vows to de-escalate fighting against its neighbour, saying his army was getting ready for further fighting in the east.
"We don't believe anyone, not a single beautiful phrase," Zelensky said in a video address to the nation, adding that Russian troops were regrouping to strike the eastern Donbass region.
"We will not give anything away. We will fight for every metre of our territory," he added.
After another round of peace talks in Istanbul yesterday, a Russian negotiator said Moscow would "radically" scale back its attacks around the capital Kyiv and the northern city of Chernigiv.
However, shelling continued during the night.
US military officials said Russian forces today did begin to pull out of the defunct Chernobyl nuclear power site north of Kyiv.
"We think that they are leaving, I can't tell you that they're all gone," said a US defence official speaking on condition of anonymity.
Mr Zelensky said in his video address that any retreat by Russian forces was "the result of the work of our defenders."
He said that as the centre for the global fight for freedom, Ukraine has the right to demand weapons from the international community, including tanks, planes, artillery systems.
"Freedom must be armed as well as tyranny," he said.
In a separate development, the Russian defence ministry announced a local ceasefire tomorrow to allow civilians to be evacuated from Ukraine's port of Mariupol, which has been under siege for weeks, left without water, food and power.
Russian forces today bombarded the outskirts of Kyiv and a besieged city in northern Ukraine.
Nearly five weeks into an invasion in which Russia has failed to capture any major city, the top UN human rights official said Moscow had bombed 50 hospitals as well as homes and schools across Ukraine in what may amount to war crimes.
Ukrainian officials called Russia out for having said yesterday that it would curtail operations near Kyiv and the northern city of Chernihiv "to increase mutual trust" for peace talks.
"It's not true," Kyiv mayor Vitali Klitschko said in a video address to EU regional officials.
"The whole night we listened to sirens, to rocket attacks and we listened to huge explosions east of Kyiv and north of Kyiv.
"There are immense battles there, people died, still die."
Ukraine and Western leaders had cautioned that Moscow's apparent peace gesture at Tuesday's talks in Istanbul was a cover for reorganising forces that had failed to take Kyiv.
Russia's defence ministry said today its forces were regrouping near Kyiv and Chernihiv to focus on the "liberation" of the breakaway eastern Donbas region.
The Pentagon said that Russia had started to reposition under a fifth of its forces arrayed around Kyiv, but warned Moscow was expected to refit and resupply them for redeployment.
Ukrainian Defence Ministry spokesman Oleksandr Motuzyanyk said Ukraine's armed forces had observed some movements of Russian forces away from the Kyiv and Chernihiv regions but did not consider this to be a mass withdrawal by Moscow.
"It is preparing to resume offensive operations," he said.
Chernihiv's mayor, Vladyslav Astroshenko, said Russian bombardment of that city had intensified over the past 24 hours, with more than 100,000 people trapped inside with just enough food and medical supplies to last about another week.
"This is yet another confirmation that Russia always lies," he told CNN, adding that 25 civilians had been injured in a "colossal mortar attack" in the city centre.
Reuters could not verify the situation in Chernihiv. Russia's defence ministry did not immediately reply to a request for comment.
Irpin itself was recaptured by Ukrainian forces this week.
Mr Zelensky discussed with US President Joe Biden more aid for Ukraine and further sanctions against Russia, the two sides said.
Ukrainian Defence Ministry spokesman Oleksandr Motuzyanyk said Ukraine's armed forces had observed some movements of Russian forces away from the Kyiv and Chernihiv regions but did not consider this to be a mass withdrawal by Moscow.
"It is preparing to resume offensive operations," he said.
Around a quarter of Ukrainians have been driven from their homes by the biggest attack on a European country since World War II.
The United Nations has said the number who have fled the country had risen above four million. More than half of those refugees are children and the rest mostly women.
Dr Guillaume Barreau from Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders in Ukraine, has said that the most critical challenge right now is to ensure adequate medical supplies.
The doctor in emergency medicine is based in Dnipro and has been working out of Zaporizhzhia, in south eastern Ukraine, where many of the evacuees from the besieged city of Mariupol are being treated.
He said that there are a lot of trauma patients coming to the hospitals as a direct result of the shelling.
And patients with chronic diseases are having difficulties accessing the drugs that they require daily.
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Russia says it is carrying out a "special operation" to disarm and "denazify" its neighbour. Western countries say Moscow's invasion was entirely unprovoked.
The Donbas region, where Russia says it will now focus its efforts, includes Mariupol, where heavy fighting was again reported today. The port city, which had a pre-war population of 400,000 people, has been laid waste after a month of Russian siege and the United Nations says thousands of people may have died.
Russian forces were shelling nearly all cities along the region's frontline today, said the governor of Donetsk, which is part of the Donbas.
Britain's defence ministry said Moscow's announcement about focusing on the Donbas was likely "a tacit admission that it is struggling to sustain more than one significant axis of advance".
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