‘Beginning of the end of war’, says prez in Kherson
KHERSON: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called the Russian withdrawal from Kherson “the beginning of the end of the war” on Monday as he met with soldiers in the southern city.
The liberation of Kherson after a grinding offensive that forced Russian to pull back its forces from the city was one of Ukraine’s biggest success so far of the nearly nine-month invasion and a stinging blow for the Kremlin.
Zelensky said that the country’s “strong army” was persistently reclaiming the territories taken by Russia since its invasion while also acknowledging the difficulties and the heavy human toll.
In Kherson, he distributed medals to soldiers Ukrainian troops in a central square and posed for selfies with them.
Video footage also showed him waving to residents who waved at him from an apartment window and yelled “Glory to Ukraine!” The reply “Glory to the heroes!” came back from Zelensky’s group, made up of soldiers and others.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Monday refused to comment on Zelensky’s visit to Kherson, saying only that “you know that it is the territory of the Russian Federation”.
The Ukrainian army has now reclaimed three major areas of the country in its counteroffensives the area north of Kyiv, the northeastern region of Kharkiv and now Kherson and many neighbouring settlements.
400 Russian war crimes
President Zelensky has accused Russian soldiers of committing war crimes and killing civilians in Kherson. “Investigators have already documented more than 400 Russian war crimes. Bodies of dead civilians and servicemen have been found,” Zelenskiy said in his nightly video address on Sunday.
“The Russian army left behind the same savagery it did in other regions of the country it entered,” he said.
Reuters was unable to verify his allegations.