The Russian occupation “was difficult, but we were lucky, we have a house with a basement and food,” said a local resident.
On a hill overlooking Izium, a strategically important town recaptured by Ukrainian forces, gathered residents say they are “happy” they can now leave their homes and call their relatives after months of occupation and fighting.
On Sunday morning, 61-year-old Nadia Nesolena was on the street when the first Ukrainian soldiers entered this town, which before the war had almost 50,000 inhabitants. “We welcomed them with tears in our eyes. We have been waiting for them for months (…) we are very happy,” the woman told AFP, cellphone in hand. On this hill is the only antenna from where it is possible to get a signal for mobile phones.
The Russian occupation “was difficult, but we were lucky, we have a house with a basement and food,” he added.
Standing on the hill overlooking the city, Yuri Kurotska “has no words” to express his joy. “All bad things come to an end,” philosophizes the 64-year-old, who went there to call his relatives who left for Kharkiv and Kyiv in March when Russian soldiers arrived in the area. To the liberating Ukrainian soldiers, he made a plea: “Please don’t leave again. Don’t leave us with the Russians again!”.
Thick white smoke billowed over the rooftops of this northeastern Ukrainian city, where the last Russian troops withdrew Saturday night in the face of a Ukrainian advance. The Russian ammunition depot where an explosion occurred on Saturday was still burning today.
Grigory Pivovar, 61, also met the first Ukrainian soldiers on Sunday morning. “We cried, we were so happy to see our people coming.” Now he can freely go out into the street and take his walk in the almost deserted city, in the company of his 16-year-old son, Kirilo.
Many residents told AFP that their pro-Russian neighbors had fled to the east even before Kremlin forces left. According to Moscow, several thousand people have arrived in Russia in recent days.
Fighting over the past six months in this city, which is near the Kharkiv front and was captured by the Russians in the spring, has left open wounds. Houses, shops, a church, two bridges, a school, have been damaged by the bombings. The Ukrainian flag was raised in the burnt town hall. And soldiers patrol the streets.
Busy as they were with securing the city, the soldiers did not have time on Sunday to take down the large banners with the Russian flag and the inscription: “We are with Russia, one nation.”
On the streets, in the Izium district, convoys of military trucks pass. On the side of the road lie dozens of burnt-out Russian vehicles, with the distinctive letter Z, the symbol of the invasion. Everywhere there are craters, burned trees, shrapnel from shells and unexploded ammunition.
In the houses of a village outside Izium that was liberated at the same time, the Ukrainians found stacks of shells and ammunition of all kinds. “We’re thinking of sending them back as a gift, by air,” joked “Tank,” one of the soldiers tasked with guarding the bombs. “Tank” and the men of his unit found in the village a few weapons, military uniforms, bulletproof vests and food rations for the Russian soldiers. “We don’t eat Russian food, it’s not good,” he joked.
This unit has undertaken the demining of the village and the neutralization of the explosive devices left behind by the Russian army.
RES-EMP
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I am currently a news writer for News Bulletin247 where I mostly cover sports news. I have always been interested in writing and it is something I am very passionate about. In my spare time, I enjoy reading and spending time with my family and friends.
