“The view is very shocking, but it is not shocking for me, because we began to see the same pictures from Bucha, from the first de-occupied territories… the same destroyed buildings, killed people,” President Volodymyr Zelensky said during his visit to recently liberated Izium. The cities of Izium and Balakliia in Kharkiv Oblast were liberated by the Armed Forces last week during the country’s lightning counter-offensive.
The liberation of these areas, some located over 60 kilometers behind where the frontline stood a week ago, represents the most significant Ukrainian achievement in the full-scale war since Russian troops withdrew from northern Ukraine in early April.
