Volodymyr Zelensky has helped raised the Ukrainian flag over the newly-recaptured Russian stronghold of Izyum as he celebrates a stunning counter-attack that routed Putin’s forces in the north of the country.
The Ukrainian president took part in a minute of silence for fallen soldiers before congratulating those still fighting on their victory. He then raising the flag in triumph over the city – which previously served as the launchpad for the Putin’s mission to seize the entire Donbas region.
‘Ukraine is taking back its own,’ a military spokesman said, as a growing hope of overall victory against Putin’s forces begins to spread across the country in the wake of Russia’s most-recent battlefield humiliation.
The scale of the unfolding military disaster is so great that not even the Kremlin’s sock-puppet propagandists are trying to disguise it, instead telling viewers on Monday night of a ‘serious defeat’ while considering – for the first time – the prospect of total defeat in Ukraine.
Karen Shakhnazarov, a film-maker and Kremlin loyalist, told viewers of Vladimir Solovyov’s nightly show that Russia is now in a ‘very difficult situation’ against a ‘strong adversary’ – adding that Moscow’s armed forces ‘were not ready’ for what he finally admitted is a ‘war’ and not a ‘special military operation’.
‘This war can only end with the defeat of one of the sides,’ he said. ‘For us, this defeat may prove fatal… it may lead to the disintegration of the country.’