Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky promised “victory” for the country on Wednesday during a visit to the strategic city of Izium, in the Kharkiv region, on his first trip to the areas recaptured this month in the counter-offensive against Russia, which remains determined to to attack Ukraine.
A pre-war town of about 50,000 inhabitants, Izium was the scene of bloody fighting before it was taken by the Russians, who made it a strategic point to supply their troops.
The recapture by Kiev troops represents a setback for the Moscow army, which has retreated to Donetsk, an area under Kremlin control since 2014. “We are only moving forward in one direction: forward, to victory”Zelensky wrote on Telegram.
In a video, the Ukrainian leader compared the devastation in Izium to that of Bucha, a town near Kiev from which Russian troops withdrew in the spring, leaving the bodies of civilians murdered in cold blood, although Moscow bears responsibility for these executions. has denied. “It’s the same thing: houses destroyed, people murdered. This is part of our history, part of the modern Russian nation.”said Zelensky.
Massive Russian bombing
Ukraine says it has regained control of thousands of square kilometers to the east and south, areas the Russians have occupied since the February 24 invasion, in two weeks. The Russian army, whose bombardment in recent days has caused major power cuts in several regions of Ukraine, said on Wednesday it was attacking Ukrainian forces across the country, particularly in the Kharkov region.
“Massive attacks have been carried out in the Dvorichna, Balakliya and Kupiansk regions against the armed forces and equipment of the 14th and 93rd motorized brigades of the Ukrainian Armed Forces,” the Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement.
Other cities and regions were also affected: in Mykolaiv, people were killed when two buildings were bombed, according to local authorities. In Bakhmut, a city in the Donetsk region that Moscow has been trying to conquer for months, five civilians were killed on Tuesday, according to the local governor.
Russia justifies its invasion on the idea that Ukrainian power is oppressing the country’s Russian-speaking population and that NATO is using Ukraine to threaten Moscow.
During its lightning-fast recapture operation, Ukraine recovered almost the entire Kharkiv region, which borders Russia, especially the cities of Balaklia, Kupiansk and Izium. The latter two were important logistics centers for Russian troops, which Moscow says have since withdrawn to Donetsk province, one of the two Russian-led breakaway regions of Donbass on Ukrainian territory.
Provision
Buoyed by Western arms transfers, Ukraine is conducting a parallel counter-offensive in the south of the country, in the occupied Kherson region, where it is already claiming progress, albeit less than in the northeast of the country. In recent weeks, the Ukrainian military has been hitting strategic bridges to make it difficult for Russian troops to supply supplies.
On Wednesday, the Russian National Guard, deployed to the Kherson and Zaporizhzhya regions, told Russian agencies it had “arrested more than 130 people” working with the special forces and the Ukrainian military.
The West, in turn, took tough sanctions against Moscow and increased arms supplies to Ukrainians. Leaders of EU and NATO countries regularly travel to Kiev to show their support for Zelensky.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced in the European Parliament in Strasbourg that she will visit the city this Wednesday, promising “unshakable solidarity” with Ukraine and steadfastness against Moscow. “Now is the time to show determination, not composure,” he said before congratulating Ukraine’s First Lady Olena Zelenska, who received a standing ovation from the European Parliament, and her “enormous courage to resist the brutality of ( Vladimir Putin)”.
For his part, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz spoke to the Russian president on Tuesday and called for “a complete withdrawal” from Ukraine.
Source: DN
