The successful reconquest of large areas in the north-east of the country, which had been occupied by the Russians for a long time, has aroused strong emotions in many Ukrainians.

"I'm happy and cry at the same time when I see the liberation," says documentary filmmaker Lidia Starodubzewa from Kharkiv to the FAZ. "I talk to friends in the region.

Much pain.

many tears

This will be a bitter victory.

But he will come, absolutely!” Starodubtseva fled abroad with her children after the outbreak of war and has not yet been able to bring herself to return to Kharkiv.

Gerhard Gnauck

Political correspondent for Poland, Ukraine, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania based in Warsaw.

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The city of over a million inhabitants is located in north-eastern Ukraine, about 30 kilometers from the border, narrowly escaped being conquered by the Russians, but was shelled by the Russians for months, including in the last few days, which led to a collapse in the power and water supply.

However, in the vicinity of the city, the Ukrainian offensive has begun, which is now directed primarily to the east and south-east, towards the Donbass region.

The village of Zalisnychne is located south-east of Kharkiv on a railway line and near the E-40 trunk road.

Journalists from various media took the opportunity to go to the liberated towns.

The police chief of the Kharkiv region, Serhiy Bolvinov, told the British broadcaster Sky News in Zaliznychne: "According to our information, there were war crimes in almost every village.

We are investigating the locations from which they were reported and will investigate all cases.” The station showed the exhumation of two bodies in a garden;

when the tarpaulin with the body was lifted, a lower leg could be seen.

The neighbor Maria, an elderly woman in a red and green headscarf, said that she had found the victims Ilham Mechteyev and Kostyantyn Pohorelov dead and covered in blood in a house in the first days of the war.

The arrival of Ukrainian troops caused joy

The police officers present loaded the bodies in white bags into the luggage compartment of a vehicle.

They then drove to an industrial plant in the village.

There they picked up another body that had been lying on top of a metal scaffold under the open sky since the end of February and thus since the Russian invasion.

Probably a security guard working at this facility.

The police came to the makeshift grave of a fourth body in a nearby garden.

Local resident Vasyl Boronov burst into tears when he told about the dead man: It's his brother Serhiy.

In all cases the same picture: The residents could not or did not want to say why the people were killed, what had happened there.

Other media also reported on the discovery of the first two bodies.

Anton Herashchenko, for years an influential adviser at the Interior Ministry in Kyiv, was in the nearby town of Balakliya on Tuesday.

He reported on television about the current exhumation of two bodies - probably another case.

There are also traces of torture by Russian uniformed men here in the region.

The scale is perhaps "not as big as in Bucha" near Kyiv, where hundreds of bodies were discovered after a good month of occupation.

Here, however, Russian troops stood for half a year and had time to cover their tracks.

"So far we have registered 30,000 cases of war crimes," Herashchenko said, referring to all of Ukraine.

The adviser also reported on the mayor of a small, occupied town who fled to Russia with the troops.

Such cases should be punished.

Deputy Interior Minister Yevheniy Yenin said that almost 40 war crimes had already been registered in the areas liberated these days.

The entry of Ukrainian troops caused joy in many places;

Videos showing residents hugging or kissing soldiers quickly spread through the media and networks.

However, in many places the apartments are empty.

It is reported from the liberated Isjum that only 10,000 of the once almost 50,000 people are currently in the city.

Local politicians said at least 1,000 civilians had died in the city "as a result of hostilities" since February.

"More than 80 percent of the infrastructure", which included Mayor Valeriy Marchenko, houses, businesses and government buildings, had been destroyed.

The advance of the front has also led to refugee movements towards Russia.

The Ukrainian governor of the Russian-held Luhansk region had already written to Telegram at the weekend that there were "kilometre-long queues" of vehicles at the border to Russia;

“Russians and collaborators” are on the run.

However, the aim of some of those who left the country was probably to save life and limb from the expected fighting.