Zelensky, visiting Kherson, vows to drive Russia from all of Ukraine

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Monday visited Kherson, the biggest prize his troops have recaptured so far, vowing to press on until Kyiv reclaims control of all its occupied territory. Zelensky’s visit came as the heads of US and Russian intelligence met in Turkey for the highest level publicly acknowledged face-to-face talks between the two countries since the Ukraine crisis started in February.

Washington said Kyiv was aware of the meeting, meant to prevent an inadvertent escalation but not involve discussion of any settlement.

Zelensky shook hands with soldiers and waved to civilians looking out from surrounding flats as he was escorted by bodyguards three days after his troops swept into the city.

He told soldiers they had “proved it was impossible to kill Ukraine”, then held a minute’s silence for the dead.

Residents also turned out, parading blue-and-yellow flags and chanting “Kherson is Ukraine” — a contrast with the early days of the occupation when people berated Russian soldiers.

No senior Russian official had made an analogous visit during eight months of occupation of the city, which President Vladimir Putin proclaimed “eternally Russian” six weeks ago.

Zelensky said Ukraine was ready for peace, but only with the restoration of all occupied territory: “You see our strong army. We are step-by-step coming through our country, through the temporarily occupied territories.”

Minutes before he arrived, nearby shelling could be heard. After he finished speaking, blasts of artillery echoed.

Russia pulled all its troops out of a pocket on the west bank of the Dnipro River last week, which included Kherson city, the only regional capital it had captured since the invasion.

Olga Fedorova, an English teacher in Kherson throughout the occupation, said lack of electricity or mobile internet connection meant many were unaware of events until Ukrainian troops raised their flag in the main square on November 11.

“We just understood that there are no Russian troops in this city and something has changed,” she said.

“People were smiling and probably somebody knew something. And then when we returned, we saw how the flag was raised by our people. And we were just crying.”

Zelensky said Ukraine had gathered evidence of at least 400 war crimes committed by Russian troops during their occupation of the area, including killings and abductions.

They left corpses, broken infrastructure and landmines littered behind them, he said. “The Russian army left behind the same savagery it did in other regions,” he said in an overnight televised address.

Russia denies its troops target civilians or have committed atrocities. Mass burial sites have been found in other parts previously occupied by Russian troops, including some with civilian bodies showing signs of torture.

Residents in and around Kherson interviewed by Reuters since Friday have described killings and abductions.

Russian soldiers “would approach you in the street and ask if you were Ukrainian or Russian. If you said Ukrainian, they would take you away,” Natalia Papernaya, a 43-year-old clothing designer, said on Sunday.

The Russians, she said, had arrested her friend for photographing a neighbour’s home to reassure the owners it had survived a nearby shell blast. The troops had taped her friend’s hood over her eyes, put her in a cellar for a day and demanded to know for whom she was taking pictures.

The friend was unharmed but heard other detainees screaming or shouting out praise for Putin under duress.

Putin has repeatedly suggested Russia could use nuclear weapons to defend its territorial integrity, interpreted in the West as an implicit threat to use them over lands Moscow claims to have annexed.