As Ukrainian troops reclaim territory that had recently been occupied by Russia's invading forces, its citizens are coming to terms with their experiences.
Tears And Relief As Liberated Towns Are Freed From Russian Occupation
- By RFE/RL
1
A Ukrainian paratrooper reacts after seeing his comrades in the recently retaken city of Izyum on September 14. After a lighting counteroffensive liberated swaths of territory in the eastern part of the country, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy traveled to Izyum where he greeted soldiers and took part in a flag-raising ceremony.
2
Izyum's residents endured shelling and six months of Russian occupation, before Ukrainian forces liberated the town.
3
Separated since the start of the Russian invasion, Maria (center) embraces her parents Maryna and Oleksandr in the newly liberated city of Izyum.
4
Surrounded by shattered homes, Nina Honchar, exits her cellar in the village of Bohorodychne, 25 kilometers southeast of Izyum.
5
Local residents react as they wait for a car distributing humanitarian aid in the village of Verbivka, which was also recently liberated.
6
A woman kisses another woman as they wait in line to receive humanitarian aid in the recently retaken city of Izyum.
7
Local residents crowd near a truck distributing humanitarian aid in the liberated town of Balaklia.
8
Ukrainian soldiers proudly show their national flag near the damaged "Kupyansk district" sign in the Kharkiv region.
9
Ukrainian soldiers take a break in liberated territory in the Kharkiv region.
10
As Russian forces fled, they left behind large quantities of ammunition and hardware such as this tank in Izyum. The loss of Izyum is regarded as a strategic setback for Moscow as its troops had relied on the city as a base and resupply node for its forces in the Kharkiv region.
11
In the basement of a police station in Balaklia, used by the Russian military as a detention facility, a prayer and the number of days are chalked on the wall. Locals reported being tortured in the building.
12
A police officer looks on as men carry the body of a person who, according to Ukrainian police, was killed by Russian troops in Balaklia.
13
The Ukrainian national flag flutters in the wind atop a monument to Ukrainian poet Taras Shevchenko in Balaklia.
14
Though Ukraine has been able to regain territory, Moscow is still unleashing missile strikes such as this one that destroyed a hydraulic structure in Kryviy Rih on September 14.
15
A Russian MT-LB armored personnel carrier burns in a field on the outskirts of Izyum on September 14.
16
Yevdokia, 65, hugs her son Oleksandr in front of their shelled house in a recently retaken area of Izyum.
