Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky has visited the recently recaptured city of Izium to thank his troops for their bravery.
In a counterattack which took Moscow by surprise, Kyiv’s forces have pushed the Russian army out of much of Kharkiv province in less than a week.
Mr Zelensky said his soldiers have retaken around 8,000sqkm in the northeast province, in a humiliating blow for Vladimir Putin.
On Wednesday, the Ukrainian president, who has paid many surprise visits to the front lines during the war, attended a flag-raising ceremony in Izium, a city used as an important supply hub by the Russian occupiers. He was pictured with soldiers and the deputy defence minister Hanna Malyar.
Much of the city has been destroyed by air strikes, with piles of rubble lying where homes used to stand.
"The view is very shocking but it is not shocking for me," Mr Zelensky told onlookers there.
The war-time leader added that Ukrainian bodies had been discovered there like they had in Bucha, a suburb of Kyiv where Russian troops are accused of torturing and killing civilians earlier in the war.
Mr Zelensky expressed confidence that the perpetrators would be brought to justice. “I am sure there will be sentencing, there will be a tribunal – not for one day do I doubt this,” he said.
The 44-year-old also said Russia will be unable to hold onto Ukrainian land for long. “It is probably possible to temporarily occupy the territory of our state. But it is definitely impossible to occupy our people, the Ukrainian people,” he said.
“Before, when we looked up, we always looked for the blue sky, the sun. And today we, and especially the people in the temporarily occupied territories, looking up, are looking for only one thing – the flag of our state. This means the heroes are here. This means the enemy is gone, they have fled.”
Amid the ruins of Izium, Mr Zelensky stressed the importance of his troops’ liberation efforts.
"Our soldiers are here. That’s a very important thing,” he said. "I see how people meet them, in what a sensitive moment. It means that with our army, the life comes back."
This comes as Ukraine consolidates its newly recaptured territory and attempts to make further advances.
In the Kharkiv region, this counteroffensive could involve threatening Russian positions behind the Oskil River.
"Ukrainian forces are continuing localised ground assaults to threaten Russian positions behind the Oskil River," the Institute for the Study of War said.
"Russian troops are unlikely to be strong enough to prevent further Ukrainian advances along the entire Oskil River because they do not appear to be receiving reinforcements, and Ukrainian troops will likely be able to exploit this weakness to resume the counter-offensive across the Oskil if they choose," it added.
As Ukraine’s counterattack in Kharkiv region met with success, Mr Zelensky expressed his belief that this winter could be a “turning point” in the war.
“I believe that this winter is a turning point, and it can lead to the rapid de-occupation of Ukraine,” he said on Saturday.
The Ukrainian president has pledged to expel Russian troops from all parts of Ukraine, including Crimea, a peninsula annexed by Russia in 2014.
“We will come. I don’t know when. Nobody knows when. But we have plans, so we’ll come, because it’s our land and our people,” he said.
