In the town hall square of Izyum, a key city recaptured by Kiev forces in eastern Ukraine on Sunday, the withdrawal of the Russians on Wednesday gave way to arguments related, in particular, to the attitude of residents during the occupation, reports AFP.

The Ukrainian flag was raised on Wednesday morning in front of the town hall, completely destroyed by fire, in the presence of President Volodymyr Zelenskyi, surrounded by military personnel.

The latter promised “victory” to his people during his first trip to Kharkiv Oblast after liberating this month’s district, almost completely retaken by his troops in just 15 days.

Later in the morning, dozens of residents, mostly elderly, gathered on the same square in the center of Izyum.

Instead of meeting with President Zelensky, whose visit was not announced in advance, they wanted to meet with Mayor Valery Marchenko to present their claims: restoration of services, state aid. He didn’t come.

Should people have accepted Russian aid during the occupation?

Opinions differ. And in the market they show those who accepted humanitarian aid from Moscow.

– You want me to die, don’t you? – defends Svitlana Ficher, 55, a woman who received Russian aid.

– Stop shouting!

– Your question: are they on the side of the Russians? No, sorry, I’m in my own country.

“She wants the Russians to feed her,” says another man.

– You sold Ukraine for food, – shouts another woman.

A woman defends Svetlana, who is accused by the crowd:

– What have you been eating all this time?

– We ate the products of our land, – answers the man.

The problem of democracy

Svitlana Ficher told AFP that she came to tell the mayor that he was “an idiot, a liar. He saved his own skin. And he left people behind,” she said of Marchenko, who decided to leave the city for the territory controlled by Kyiv before the arrival of the Russians in the spring.

“I didn’t have any information about the evacuation. I couldn’t leave. And now I’m a traitor because I survived on Russian rations,” she said.

Talk is also swirling around the man responsible for the massive destruction that has hit the city, which has been at the center of the hostilities. Russians or Ukrainians? And here opinions differ.

Some say that local residents are also involved in the destruction.

“These disputes are issues of democracy. It wouldn’t have happened to the Russians,” said one man, briefly joining the fray before slipping out of the crowd.

In the East of Ukraine, the majority of the population is Russian-speaking. This majority also includes pro-Moscow supporters.

Before the war, about 47,000 people lived in Izyum. According to a local source, less than half of them are believed to be left.

During the occupation from April to September 10, many pro-Russian residents remained in Izyum.

Some left before the arrival of Ukrainian troops, including those most involved in cooperation with the Russian occupiers, a Ukrainian military official told AFP on condition of anonymity.

Taisia ​​Litovka, a 46-year-old nurse, prefers to stay away from controversy. “We got lost (…), but the last four days we were very happy,” she says. Now she wants the connection to be restored so that she can call her children in western Ukraine.

A little further on, a man carries a Ukrainian flag on his shoulders. Georgy Dzhikidze, 60 years old, Georgian, married to a Ukrainian woman from Izyum. “We moved (from Georgia) because we had a war in Georgia. But the war followed us. We have a common enemy in Ukraine and in Georgia — this is Russia,” he says.

Ukrainian soldiers have been patrolling the city since Sunday. Two tanks with infantry pass through the center with a deafening roar. Residents are gradually returning to the city.