Zelenskyy visits Kherson, calls liberation ‘beginning of the end’

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy paid a visit to the recently liberated city of Kherson. Monday’s visit served as a victory lap of sorts for Ukraine, with President Zelenskyy claiming the Russian withdrawal from the city as the “beginning of the end of the war.”

“The moment is very important,” Zelenskyy said Monday. “That is the biggest city which was occupied since 24th February so you know, it was the biggest city and now it’s free, so Ukraine came and I am happy.”

Zelenskyy’s visit came just hours after warning in his nightly video address of traps and mines left behind by the Russians before their retreat. He added that Ukraine has begun the “detention of Russian soldiers and mercenaries who were abandoned” in the Kherson region.

“The Russian army left behind the same atrocities as in other regions of our country, where it was able to enter. We will find and bring to justice every murderer. Without a doubt,” Zelenskyy said Sunday. “Investigators have already documented more than 400 Russian war crimes, and the bodies of both civilians and military personnel have been found.”

The Russian withdrawal of Kherson and Zelenskyy’s subsequent visit are triumphant milestones in Ukraine’s pushback against Moscow’s invasion. In the past two months, Ukraine’s military claimed to have retaken dozens of towns and villages north of the city of Kherson.

The Ukrainian momentum could become a springboard for further advances into occupied territory. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov refused to comment on Zelenskyy’s visit to Kherson Monday, saying only “you know that it is the territory of the Russian Federation.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.