Ukraine leader visits ruined recaptured frontline town of Izium

Ukraine said it was trying to extend a counteroffensive in the east as President Volodymyr Zelensky paid a surprise visit to a devastated  recaptured town on Wednesday.

But pro-Russian officials claim they have halted Kyiv’s forces for now. 

Moscow’s forces suffered a stunning reversal this month when Ukrainian troops mounted a fast armoured thrust in the northeastern region of Kharkiv, forcing a sometimes rushed and chaotic Russian withdrawal.

Zelensky said in a late-night address on Tuesday that his army liberated about 8,000 square kilometres  of territory so far this month, a swath of land nearly as big as the island of Cyprus.

Reuters was not able to immediately verify the full scope of battlefield successes claimed by Ukraine.

Zelensky, who visited the town of Izium, an important logistics hub about 15km from the shifting eastern frontline, said about half the liberated territory was secured and pro-Russian elements rooted out.

Ukrainian troops were assaulting the Russian-held town of Lyman in Ukraine’s Donetsk region, Oleksiy Arestovych, said an adviser to Zelensky, They were eyeing territorial gains in the neighbouring Luhansk region now under Russian control.

“There is now an assault on Lyman,” Arestovych said in a video posted on YouTube, predicting a fight for the town of Svatovo, where he said the Russians have storage depots.

“That is what they fear most, that we take Lyman and then advance on Lysychansk and Sievierodonetsk,” he said, referring to twin cities in the Luhansk region taken by Russia after fierce fighting in June and July.

Denis Pushilin, head of the Russia-backed self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic, said troops loyal to Moscow had pushed back Ukrainian forces trying to move into Lyman, and the situation had stabilised for now.

“Nothing worked out for the enemy,” said Pushilin. Ukrainian attacks to the north and south of Lyman were repelled, he said.

Asked whether Ukraine’s lightning counteroffensive in the east was a turning point in the six-month war, US President Joe Biden said it was hard to tell.

“It’s clear the Ukrainians have made significant progress. But I think it’s going to be a long haul,” said Biden.

Russian forces still control about a fifth of Ukraine in the south and east, even though Kyiv is on the offensive in both areas.

The White House, which has provided billions of dollars of weapons and support to Ukraine, has said the US is likely to announce a new military aid package in “coming days”.

In Izium, recaptured in Ukraine’s lightning thrust, Zelensky watched as the Ukrainian flag was raised in front of a charred local administration building with sandbags at its entrance.

No high-street buildings were left unscathed. A derelict bath house had a hole blasted in its side. Meat shops, pharmacies, a shoe shop and a beauty salon were scarred by shrapnel.

Stray dogs, perhaps abandoned by fleeing owners, scampered around in the destruction. The golden dome of an Orthodox Church stood badly damaged.

“I know this region very well,” Zelensky told reporters. “The view is shocking, but it is not shocking for me because we… saw the same pictures from Bucha, from the first deoccupied territories, the same destroyed buildings, people killed.”

After a Russian retreat earlier in the war, civilians' bodies were found in the town of Bucha, near Kyiv.

In Izium, bus stops were daubed with “Z” markings, the symbol Russian forces use to identify themselves. Charred remains of tanks and armoured personnel carriers lay by the road into town.

With a pink hood wrapped around her face for warmth, Lyubov Sinna, 74, said residents were shell-shocked and that it was too early to feel safe.

“We waited a long time for our guys. Of course, we feel positive. Joy. But there is also fear — fear that the Russians could return here,” she said.

“Because we lived through this whole six months. We sat it out in cellars. We went through everything it is possible to go through. We absolutely cannot say that we feel safe.”

There is no gas, electricity or water supply in town. She said she did not know how people will get through winter.

In a move that suggests Russian President Vladimir Putin had much wider war aims when he ordered tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine on February 24, three people close to the Russian leadership told Reuters that Putin had rejected a provisional deal with Kyiv as the war began.

They said the deal would have satisfied Russia’s demand that Ukraine stay out of Nato and was brokered by Putin’s then top envoy on Ukraine. The Kremlin said the Reuters report had “absolutely no relation to reality”. It also said Ukraine’s ambition to join the Western Nato military alliance was still a threat to Russia.

Russia also faces challenges in other former Soviet republics. About 100 people were killed this week in the worst fighting between Azerbaijan and Armenia since the 2020 war, prompting Putin to appeal for calm.

On Wednesday, shooting broke out between guards patrolling the border between Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, Russian news agencies reported, citing the Kyrgyz border service.

Reuters