Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky visited Kherson, a major city in southern Ukraine, on Monday, watching the flag-raising and singing the national anthem, three days after it was recaptured from the Russian army after weeks of fighting.
The Kremlin for its part continued to affirm that the Ukrainian city, officially annexed in September along with the region of the same name, belonged to Russia although its troops had to abandon it.
“It’s important to be here […] so that people feel that these are not just words and promises, but that we are really coming back and really waving our flag, ”said Mr. Zelensky in a short video posted on social networks.
Hand on heart, like other civilian and military officials present, he sang the national anthem as the Ukrainian flag was raised in front of the regional administration building in central Kherson.
“Our enemies will perish like dew on the sun, and we too, brothers, will rule in our land. For our freedom, we will give our souls and our bodies,” they intoned.
According to photos posted on his Telegram account, the Ukrainian leader also walked around the streets of the city in military uniform, surrounded by heavily armed bodyguards, without however wearing a helmet or bulletproof vest himself.
Many residents, some draped in Ukrainian colors, were massed in his path.
“Glory to Ukraine! “, shouted residents from the balcony of a building. “Glory to the heroes! “, replied in accordance with tradition the head of state and those who accompanied him, according to a video widely relayed on social networks.
The impassive Kremlin
Russian forces were forced to withdraw last week from Kherson after eight months of occupation, leaving the way open for Ukrainian soldiers to enter the city on Friday.
Asked about this trip of the Ukrainian president to Kherson, the Kremlin for its part continued to affirm that the city, capital of the region of the same name whose annexation Moscow claims, belonged to Russia.
“We will not comment, you know very well that this is the territory of the Russian Federation,” Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.
Kherson was the first major city and the only regional center to fall after the Russian invasion launched at the end of February, and the forced withdrawal of troops from Moscow in the face of pressure from the Ukrainian counter-offensive was a snub for Vladimir Putin, who ordered the mobilization of 300,000 reservists last month.
“The coming months will be difficult” for Ukraine, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg warned on Monday.
“We must not make the mistake of underestimating Russia,” he declared at a press conference in The Hague.
“Putin’s goal is to leave Ukraine cold and dark this winter,” he continued. The Russian army, in difficulty on the ground, has carried out in recent weeks several waves of massive strikes by missiles and kamikaze drones on Ukrainian civil infrastructure, in particular on energy networks.
“Atrocities”
In his daily address, Volodymyr Zelensky on Sunday evening accused the Russian forces of having committed “atrocities” in Kherson as in the other previously liberated regions.
According to him, 400 Russian “war crimes” have been documented at this stage, without specifying whether they only concerned the Kherson region.
Russia has not yet reacted to these claims.
Questioned by AFP, residents of Kherson recounted the months of Russian occupation and for some, their acts of resistance to help the Ukrainian counter-offensive.
Volodymyr Timor, a 19-year-old boy, said he had noted with his friends for months the movements of Russian soldiers in the city to inform the Ukrainian army.
“You observe carefully, then go home and write everything down, before sending everything,” the young man, who wanted to become a musician before the war, told AFP.
“We reported everything: where their equipment and ammunition storage places were, where they slept, where they went to drink,” he added.
Further north, in the east of the country where fierce fighting against Russian forces continues, the Ukrainian army has taken over the village of Makiivka, in the Luhansk region, 50 km northeast of the strategic town of Severodonetsk, controlled by the Russians, affirmed the Ukrainian presidency in its daily bulletin on Monday.
In total, twelve localities in the region have returned to Ukrainian control, according to Governor Serguiï Gaïdaï, who however did not specify since when.