At least a thousand civilians in the city of Izyum died as a result of the armed aggression of the occupants. Even more people of the de-occupied city suffered due to the lack of medical care. Therefore, it is necessary to provide the city with medicines and hospitalize the victims, the deputy of the Izyum City Council Maxym Strelnikov announced at a briefing - LB.ua correspondent reports.
"On 10 September, thanks to the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the yellow-blue flag of Ukraine again hoisted over Izyum. Now it appears on all houses, at the highest point in Kharkiv Region ... Now stabilization measures are still underway in Izyum, being carried out by the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the Security Service of Ukraine and other law enforcement agencies, so that the government and the General Staff could officially announce the good news that everyone has been waiting for so long," he said.
Strelnikov added that the city was badly damaged as a result of the military aggression of the occupiers.
“More than 80% of the city’s infrastructure, unfortunately, has been destroyed. These are also private, multi-apartment residential buildings, state and municipal institutions. Industrial facilities, too. It is true that, unfortunately, the city has been destroyed. The worst thing is that winter is coming. And the centralized heating, which was used by the majority of the inhabitants, has been destroyed. These are the challenges the local authorities and the leadership of the Kharkiv military administration will face," he added.
According to him, that is why it is necessary to quickly carry out an examination and design works in order to begin the restoration of the city.
The deputy stressed that information on the number of victims among the civilian population still needs to be clarified.
"Since the occupiers here, as in other places, committed war crimes, they tried to hide them. According to the information we have, at least a thousand local residents died as the very result of military operations. Unfortunately, even more people suffered because they were not given timely medical assistance, since the russian occupiers destroyed all medical institutions in Izyum back in March, they did not function, access to medicines was also limited because the occupiers and looters plundered all pharmacies.
Therefore, the issues of medicines and hospitalization of residents in need of emergency medical care are very acute. These issues are top priority," Strelnikov stressed.
According to preliminary data, currently about 10,000 civilians remain in the city of Izyum.
"Recently, it was possible to carry out the so-called silent evacuation. Therefore, women, children under 14 years old and the elderly had the opportunity to leave the city and are on the territory of Ukraine. Most are waiting for the opportunity to return to their homes. But the situation with the critical infrastructure in the city is very difficult, is a challenge for us. These issues will be discussed at the highest level and decisions will be made. We hope that we will have time to do everything so that the winter will not come unexpected,” the deputy added.
Izyum is the third largest city in the region. As of 2020, Izyum's population was over 46,600.
The russians captured Izyum at the beginning of March. Since 6 March, intensive shelling of the city and air strikes continued, the entire infrastructure of the city was destroyed, almost 80% of residential buildings were destroyed. From 2 April, the city was completely occupied. It does not have electricity, water or gas.
Izyum has long been the hottest spot in Kharkiv Region. The enemy was shelling the city randomly when he realized that the battle for Kharkiv had already been lost.
Over the past few days, the defenders have liberated more than a thousand square kilometers of Ukrainian territory from the occupiers. In some areas, units of the Defence Forces penetrated the enemy defences to a depth of 50 km. More than 30 settlements, which were temporarily captured by russian occupiers in Kharkiv Region, were liberated or taken under control, including Izyum.
The “mayor” of Izyum, appointed by the russian occupiers, had fled before the offensive of the Armed Forces took place.