tears and hugs to welcome the soldiers

The images are reminiscent of times gone by. They already remembered in February, when prosperous families saw themselves from one day to the next wandering on foot and with what was put on the roads so as not to die under the rubble in a bombing, on their way to being welcomed as refugees, leaving behind their home, their profession and all your life projects. But now they are hopeful and we see Ukrainian soldiers liberate cities and receive applause and hugs from compatriots. The invader flees.

[La desbandada del ejército ruso permite a Ucrania rebasar la frontera de la república títere de Putin]

The President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, has asked allies to speed up the shipment of weapons. His troops have recovered 6,000 square kilometers of territory since the beginning of September in a counteroffensive in the Kharkov region that casts doubt on the enemy. Even loyal to Vladimir Putin They speak at this time of “disaster” while the Kremlin tries to contain the fury by ensuring that its “special military operation” will conclude successfully.

At least, the course of recent events has meant a turning point that permeates public opinion, a separate question is whether the war can be won or if its end is near but today, for the first time, the defeat of Russia is contemplated. Zelensky predicts a “rapid unemployment” this winter and his speech is convincing. The president has not worn down his popularity against all odds, he still does not leave kyiv and does not miss his daily address to the nation.

Social networks amplify this message and corroborate it with emotional and powerful videos of the liberation. Ukraine reconquered in hours what had taken Russia months to control. And the inhabitants, mainly women, take to the streets in tears to receive the liberators to whom they offer refreshments and food. But they call for calm and to continue in the shelter. 102 days of war are enough to be aware that at any moment the bombs can fall again.

hope not euphoria

Indeed, if Zelensky has asked his partners to send more weapons as soon as possible, it is because he does not want hope to be confused with euphoria. The journalist Rostyslav Averchuk, in a chronicle offered by the Efe agency, talks with Olena Mykula, a citizen of Lviv whose brother fights in the east, and warns: “The greater our successes, the more Russia will run amok with its missile attacks “.

Averchuk also recounts the fear that discoveries like those of Bucha or Irpín will take place in the liberated settlements. There are already reports of disappearances of residents and traces of torture and bullet wounds in the neck have been found in the town of Grakove.

Many of the videos of the liberation correspond to the city of Balakliya, one of the first recovered in Kharkov. Along with those showing Russian tanks destroyed or seized from the enemy, they are the main information on the ground for Ukrainians, who consume everything that helps them understand the state of the conflict. They must be satiated with them because kyiv does not abandon its secrecy about its next steps or objectives. Otherwise it would give clues to Moscow.

But not only soldiers and anonymous citizens contribute to improving morale. The Ministry of Defense itself has shared a video in the last hours in which it mocks the Russian army. Foot soldiers are seen jumping out of a rapidly retreating tank, which ends up crashing into a tree.

This appeals to patriotism, as is the case with another image that has gone viral that must be placed in the city of Balakliya. There, a Ukrainian soldier tears down a large Kremlin propaganda poster on a billboard that reads ‘We are one people with Russia!’ Under that poster appears a previous one with verses by the Ukrainian poet Taras Shevchenko. ‘Fight and you will win!’ says the first stanza.