Zelensky visits the liberated city of Izium, in the Kharkov region, and raises the Ukrainian flag

Volodymyr Zelensky He visited Izium on Wednesday, the city liberated by Ukrainian soldiers that served as the main base for Russian troops in the Kharkov province. There, Zelenski has participated in a solemn ceremony in which the flag of Ukraine has been raised while the national anthem was sung in celebration of the reconquest.

Zelensky traveled to Izium, a little less than 100 kilometers from the Russian border, after Ukrainian forces managed to control this territory, which had been in the hands of the Russians for several months. The Russian retreat has been so chaotic that soldiers have left their armor, tanks and ammunition behind as they fled.

“Before, when looking up, we always looked for the blue sky, the sun. Now, especially in the occupied territorieswe are looking for only one thing: the flag of our country”Zelensky has said in a symbolic speech in Izium.

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The act, with Zelensky dressed as a soldier, began with a minute of silence in honor of fallen military to retake the city. Also present was the Deputy Minister of Defense, Hanna Maliar, as well as several senior representatives of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

4,000 km2 recovered

As reported on Tuesday by the Ministry of Defense, in the course of Ukraine’s counteroffensive more than 300 localities have already been liberated in the northeastern region of the country, from which Russian forces have almost completely withdrawn.

Among those localities are also the localities of Kupianskin the region of KharkivY Balakliya, hitherto controlled by Russian forces. Kupiansk was a vital supply center for Russian forces in eastern Ukraine, which had been under their rule since the first week of the February invasion.

These advances would be the most significant since Russia withdrew from the outskirts of kyiv in April. These reconquests have occurred due to a sudden and apparent collapse of one of the main front lines of war after Ukrainian forces encircled these areas in a shock advance.

According to the Commander-in-Chief of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, Valerii Fedorovych Zaluzhnyi, ukrainian troops have recovered more than 4,000 square kilometers of territory only in the month of September and assures that “Ukraine continues to liberate territories occupied by Russia”.

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Izium, Russia’s worst defeat

The withdrawal of Russian troops from the city of Izium is the worst defeat of the Kremlin forces since they were expelled from kyiv in March, when thousands of Russian soldiers had to abandon their ammunition and equipment and fled.

Izium, with some 45,000 inhabitants before the start of the war and some 120 kilometers southeast of the regional capital, Kharkov, was of crucial importance for the Russian troops, who controlled the towns leading to the region of Luhansk.