Ukraine is racing to establish control over the newly-liberated Kharkiv region. The country’s president Volodymyr Zelensky paid a surprise visit to the city of Izyum, until recently a strategic point for Russia’s occupation reinforcements (photos here). ‘We are moving in only one direction – forward and towards victory’, he said after the Ukrainian flag was raised in the city centre.
The restoration of civic apparatus in these liberated areas is being carried out with military speed. Some £9 million been allocated from the state budget to rebuild critical infrastructure. The national postal providers are already resuming work, delivering aid kits with medicine, food, clothing. Pension payments will also be posted: this still happens in cash, as many Ukrainian pensioners have never had bank accounts. Starlink satellites, which Ukraine received as a donation from Elon Musk, are been installed in recaptured Ukrainian cities.
Police are finding the bodies of civilians with traces of torture
Alongside the relief comes deeper understanding of the horrors of occupation.
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