Russia-Ukraine war: Ukrainians brace for renewed attacks, await blocked supplies

KYIV, Ukraine - Russian troops left the heavily contaminated Chernobyl nuclear site early Friday after returning control to the Ukrainians, authorities said, as residents in parts of eastern Ukraine braced for renewed attacks and awaited blocked supplies of food and other humanitarian relief.Ukraine’s state power company, Energoatom, said the pullout at Chernobyl came after soldiers received "significant doses" of radiation from digging trenches in the forest in the exclusion zone around the closed plant.

The International Atomic Energy Agency said it could not independently confirm the exposure claim.In what would be the first attack of its kind, if confirmed, the governor of Russia's Belgorod region accused Ukraine of flying helicopter gunships across the border on Friday morning and striking an oil depot.The depot run by Russian energy giant Rosneft is located about 35 kilometers (21 miles) north of the Ukraine-Russia border.

The helicopter attack set the facility ablaze, and two people were injured, according to a Telegram post by Belgorod governor Vyacheslav Gladkov."The fire at the oil depot occurred as a result of an airstrike from two helicopters of the armed forces of Ukraine, which entered the territory of Russia at a low altitude," the governor wrote on the messaging app.It was not immediately possible to verify the claim or images that were circulating on social media of the alleged attack.

Russia has reported shelling from Ukraine before, including an incident last week that killed a military chaplain, but not an incursion of its airspace.Elsewhere, Ukrainian forces have retaken the villages of Sloboda and Lukashivka, which are south of the besieged northern city of Chernihiv and located along one of the.