Ukrainian flag raised as Zelenskyy visits retaken Izyum
Al JazeeraRussian forces left the war-scarred city last week as Ukraine pressed forward in a sweeping counteroffensive that has reclaimed vast swathes of territory in the country’s northeastern Kharkiv region. Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the president of Ukraine, has visited Izyum, days after his country’s troops retook the city during an ongoing counteroffensive against Russian forces in the northeastern part of the country. However, Russia said on Wednesday its forces were hitting back on areas taken back by Ukraine in Kharkiv with “massive strikes”, claiming losses to Ukrainian military servicemen and hardware. The Ukrainian official in charge of the eastern Donetsk region, partially controlled by pro-Moscow separatists since 2014, said Russian forces had attacked the entire front-line region during the past 24 hours.