Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky visited the recently recaptured northeastern city of Izyum on Wednesday.
During the visit, the Ukrainian leader took part in a ceremony to raise the Ukrainian flag in the city while the country’s national anthem played. He also thanked service members who liberated the city from Russian control over the weekend.
“The view is very shocking, but it is not shocking for me,” Zelensky told reporters, “because we began to see the same pictures from Bucha, from the first de-occupied territories … so the same destroyed buildings, killed people.”
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Zelensky also recently said the Ukrainian military had regained more than 3,000 square miles of territory this month, which is more territory than Russia had captured from April through August.
“As of now, stabilization measures have been completed in the districts with a total area of more than 4,000 square kilometers [1,500 square miles]. Stabilization continues in the liberated territory of approximately the same size,” he added. “Remnants of occupiers and sabotage groups are being detected, collaborators are being detained, and full security is being restored.”
Ukrainian forces’ retaking of the city marked a significant blow to Russia’s military operations in the east due to Izyum’s location between the Kharkiv and Donetsk regions. The area had been in Russian control for more than five months and had become a key hub for Russian forces.
“Earlier, when we looked up, we always looked for the blue sky, the sun. And today, looking up, we and especially the people in the temporarily occupied territories are looking for only one thing — the flag of our state. It means that the heroes are here. It means that the enemy is gone, ran away,” Zelensky said in a release on the government’s website about his visit to Izyum.
Despite the stunning losses in the east, Russian leaders have said they will not call up their reserve forces. They have described the war in Ukraine as a “special military operation,” and by calling up the reserve troops, the government would likely be forced to admit that there is a war going on and that it’s not going well.
A State Duma deputy from the ruling party, Mikhail Sheremet, said earlier this week that “full mobilization” is necessary for Russia to succeed in Ukraine.
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Russia still occupies several strategic Ukrainian cities, including Mariupol, Zaporizhzhia — the location of the largest nuclear power plant in Europe, which has led to concerns that fighting near the plant could trigger a catastrophic outcome — Melitopol, and Kherson, and Russia has sought to acquire additional military equipment from foreign nations, including North Korea and Iran.
Ukraine said on Tuesday that it shot down an Iranian drone for the first time near Kharkiv. U.S. officials first warned in July that Russia has sought to buy hundreds of drones from Iran.
