Photo: UKRAINIAN PRESIDENTIAL PRESS SERVICE/REUTERS / Deutsche Welle
Ukrainian President Volodimir Zelensky visited this Monday (24.000.2022) the city of Kherson, capital of this region of the same name in southern Ukraine, and raised the country’s flag, at a ceremony in the center of the city, recently liberated from Russian military occupation, local media reported.
This is the first visit of the Ukrainian president to this city , one of the main cities in Ukraine and which was the only regional capital that the Russians achieved control militarily in the almost nine months since Russia invaded this country.
The Ukrainian president arrived accompanied by several senior officials and soldiers, including Andrii Yermak, the head of the presidential office, and Kirilo Timoshenko, deputy head of that same institution, in addition to several ministers.
Yermak posted on his Twitter account images of the flag-raising ceremony in the central square of Kherson , where the city’s administrative buildings are located, until two days ago in the hands of the Russian Army.
After the anthem was played of the country and before an emotional Zelenski, one of the soldiers attending the act hoisted the Ukrainian national flag.
Zelenski announced the past 11 of November that the city of Kherson was again under the control of Ukraine, after Russian troops decided to withdraw to the other side of the Dnieper River, which acts as a natural border between the north and south of the region.
A day later, the Office of the Ukrainian President reported that the head of the Kherson regional military administration, Yaroslav Yanushevich, employees of the National Police and the UC Security Service Rania had already started working in the city and in the other areas of the region that had also been liberated.
Kherson, occupied by the Russians on March 2, it was one of the Ukrainian regions, along with neighboring Zaporizhia, and eastern Donetsk and Lugansk, which were annexed by Russia, despite the fact that Moscow has never achieved full military control over these territories.
The Klemlin has ensured that the withdrawal of its troops to the other bank of the river Dnieper is due to a reorganization of the front and a change of strategy in the invasion that started last 14 February.
Meanwhile, the kyiv government fears that Russian soldiers could still attack the capital of Kherson from the other side of the river and have called on the population not to return yet to the area until it is not completely safe due to the mines that the Russians have left.
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