Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky visited the newly liberated city of Kherson, addressing residents of a city Russia claimed just six weeks ago to have annexed “forever”. “This is the beginning of the end of the war,” Mr. Zelenskiy told a crowd of several hundred cheering residents who came to the city’s central Freedom Square to greet him. “We are returning step by step to all temporarily occupied territories.” Mr Zelensky made the unannounced visit just 72 hours after the first Ukrainian troops entered Kherson following the Russian withdrawal from the Dnipro River which now forms the front line. His appearance also comes a day before the start of the G20 summit in Indonesia, which is expected to be dominated by discussions of the war in Ukraine, despite Russian President Vladimir Putin’s decision not to attend the meeting. While Mr Putin avoided a clash with his G-20 counterparts, Mr Zelensky – not for the first time – was just two kilometers from Russian-controlled territory. He attended a flag raising ceremony and pinned medals on the chests of the soldiers who had taken part in the liberation of the city. “Honestly, it’s important to be here. This is important. Everyone is at risk. The army takes risks every day,” he told an impromptu news conference in Freedom Square, hours after the regional governor asked people not to gather in the city center because of the number of mines and booby traps left behind by retreating Russian forces. . “It seems to me that we should speak here and support the people of Chersona…. I will tell you humanly that I really want to get the emotions, the energy from people.” See the highlights from Mr. Zelensky’s visit to Kherson. Reuters Ukrainian soldiers in the Kherson region drive a captured Russian vehicle and remove a Russian poster. Bernat Armangue, Libkos/The Associated Press MURAT YUKSELIR / THE GLOBE AND MAIL, SOURCE: GRAPHIC NEWS Mr Putin, who ordered a full-scale invasion of Ukraine on February 24, has yet to set foot in any of the occupied territories, despite signing a decree in October claiming to have annexed the regions of Kherson, Zaporizhzhia , Donetsk and Luhansk. . Russia also illegally seized and annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014. Dmitry Peskov, Mr. Putin’s spokesman, said the Kremlin had nothing to say about Mr. Zelensky’s trip to Kherson. “We leave it without comment. You know it is the territory of the Russian Federation.” It is an area that has been left in ruins. Kherson was without water, power, electricity and cellphone connections Sunday when The Globe and Mail visited the city, although Ukrainian engineers were scrambling to restore services. Residents who had remained in Kherson during Russia’s presence for 256 days recalled how they lived in fear of the occupation forces. The Russians initially appeared to tolerate pro-Ukrainian protests in the city, only to later arrest and interrogate those who had taken part. “It was so scary. We couldn’t go anywhere and there was no food, no electricity, no mobile phone network,” said Dasha Bryletska, a 16-year-old who said she has spent most of the past eight months indoors, taking long-distance nursing classes. . He said he now hoped to leave Kherson and go to university somewhere else in Ukraine. “We couldn’t go anywhere” during the Russian occupation, says Dasha Bryletska. Anton Skyba/The Globe and Mail In a video address on Sunday, Mr Zelensky said Ukrainian forces had already uncovered evidence of 400 alleged war crimes committed by Russian forces in the region. “Bodies of civilians and military personnel were found,” he said. Some Kherson residents, however, appear to have accepted the Russian presence, taking jobs in the occupation administration and receiving salaries and pensions that residents say were higher than those paid in Ukraine. At least some of the town’s residents – Russia claims 115,000 out of a pre-war population of nearly 300,000 – appear to have fled to the Dnipro before the return of Ukrainian troops. Oleksandr Vilkul, the head of the military administration in the nearby city of Kryvyi Rih, visited Kherson on Sunday and said its liberation was important for all of southern Ukraine. “On the right bank of the Dnipro, cities such as Mykolaiv, Odesa and Kryvyi Rih are now 100% safe from ground operations. There will still be rockets, kamikaze drones and attacks on our energy systems – but no one will enter these cities with tanks,” Mr Vilkul said. And, he added, the return of Kherson opened up other military options for Ukraine. “It’s not that far from here to the Crimea.”
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