Ukraine accuses Russian troops of taking children hostage and using them as human shields on their way out of Kyiv

A Ukrainian official said Russian troops are repositioning to focus on Ukraine's Donbas region.

Oleksandr Motuzyanyk also said "the enemies have been using Ukrainian children as a living shield."

He said cases of children being taken as hostage have been reported across the country.

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A top Ukrainian official accused Russian troops on Friday of taking children hostage and using them as human shields during a tactical repositioning from the Kyiv area.

"The enemies have been using Ukrainian children as a living shield when moving their convoys, their vehicles, according to reports by local civilians," Ukraine's defense ministry spokesperson Col. Oleksandr Motuzyanyk said during a media briefing.

He added: "Occupiers use those children as hostages as a guarantee that local civilians will not provide the enemy's coordinates to Ukrainian defenders."

Motuzyanyk said cases where children are being used as human shields have been reported in multiple provinces across the country.

He said Russian troops are regrouping and repositioning their efforts to focus on eastern Ukraine's Donbas region, and have "partially" withdrawn from the area around Kyiv.

Ukraine's foreign affairs ministry spokesperson also accused Russian forces on Thursday of looting homes during their retreat from Kyiv.

"As Russian troops retreat from the Kyiv region after having sustained immense losses, they are looting houses of ordinary people," Oleg Nikolenko tweeted. "Electronics, clothes, shoes, cosmetics. This is not an army. This is a disgrace. We will never forget and we will never forgive."

Motuzyanyk's remarks on Russia's repositioning fall in line with that of Russia's defense ministry, which said earlier in the week it would redirect its forces to the Donbas region.

Amid a fresh round of peace talks in Istanbul, Russia claimed on Tuesday it would scale down its assault in the northern region near Kyiv and Chernihiv.

Ukraine's state nuclear agency confirmed on Thursday that Russian forces started to withdraw from Chernobyl — the decommissioned nuclear plant near Kyiv that was captured in the early days of the war — because troops reportedly fell ill from radiation poisoning.

Emine Dzheppar, Ukraine's deputy foreign affairs minister, accused Russian forces of looting Chernobyl and a nearby hotel — claiming they stole everything from computers to spoons.

Despite the apparent moving of troops, the Pentagon has expressed a deep skepticism that Russia would actually undergo a real troop withdrawal near Kyiv, and said any Russian military movement is likely a repositioning.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, meanwhile, has also warned of the potential for new attacks on his country's eastern front.