Zelensky celebrates the recovery of 30 villages 0:41
(CNN) --
Local officials in the Kharkiv region say the Ukrainian flag has been raised in settlements near the Russian border, confirming the continued withdrawal of Russian forces from the area.
Oleksandr Kulik, an official in Derhachi, northeast of the city of Kharkiv, said that local residents had raised the Ukrainian flag in the city of Kozacha Lopan.
Ukrainian forces enter Izium city after five months of Russian occupation, Kyiv says
Kozacha Lopan had been occupied by the Russians since March and was an administrative center for the occupation authorities.
It is located five kilometers from the Russian border and has suffered serious damage during the conflict.
Social media video provided by the Derhachi city council also showed residents of another settlement, Tokarivka, raising the Ukrainian flag.
Tokarivka is also close to the Russian border.
A picture taken on September 10, 2022 shows Ukrainian flags placed on statues in a square in Balakliya, Kharkiv region, amid Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
- Ukrainian forces said on September 10, 2022 that they had entered the eastern Ukrainian city of Kupiansk, dislodging Russian troops from a key logistics hub in a lightning counter-offensive that has seen swathes of territory retaken.
(JUAN BARRETO/AFP via Getty Images)
Viktoriya Kolodochka, head of the Tokarivka district, said on Sunday: "The village was vacated this morning. People heard the roar of Russian military equipment. The Russians started gathering on their own in the morning and started to flee."
Kolodochka, who is not in the city but has contacts there, told CNN by phone that the Russians had left behind a lot of ammunition.
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He also spoke of the months under occupation, which he described as "very scary".
He claimed that the occupation troops were from the Luhansk People's Militia, which he said behaved like gangsters.
They searched for people who had been in the security forces, confiscated phones and ransacked houses.
He alleged that they also beat and intimidated local residents.
Latest news of Russia's war in Ukraine on September 10
“They took people to the basement of the school, beat them, electrocuted them, forced them to dig trenches, forced them to give information about people who worked in Ukrainian state agencies.
But they didn't kill anyone," he told CNN.
Kolodochka commented that there was no humanitarian aid until August, when the occupation forces provided sugar and flour.
He said that the people survived mainly on the products of their own garden.
He claimed that he had left town in April, but that his parents had stayed behind.
"There are people left [in Tokarivka] who are waiting very, very much for our army," he said.
"People really need help. There are ten elderly women immobilized. There are people with diabetes and asthma. They are surviving as best they can. Medicines are much needed."
This is how the Ukrainians receive the soldiers who recover territory 0:57
As for those who died during the occupation, Kolodochka told CNN: "There are people buried in their yards, we just buried them in their yards."
He added that there is still great uncertainty about what will happen.
"People are still scared. Will they stop shooting? Is it true that the Russians are gone? Or not? They wait so long for the Ukrainian military."
But she insisted: "We will survive everything to be home."
Ukrainian flags fly in the liberated city of Balakliya on Sunday.
(Metin Aktas/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images)
More than 40 settlements in the Kharkiv region have been liberated
Roman Semenukha, deputy head of the military administration of the Kharkiv region, told Ukrainian television: "We can officially announce the liberation of more than 40 settlements. The situation is changing incredibly fast and there are many, many more [unoccupied] settlements."
Semenukha noted that the 40 referred only to those places where the situation was completely under control, and there were more where the Ukrainian flag had been raised.
"The situation is dynamically positive. And, in fact, the situation is changing," he said.
Semenukha said it was wrong to suggest the Russians just walk away.
"There are fierce, fierce battles in many areas of the front and everything is very, very difficult. If we are talking about the military component, then you just have to be patient," he said.
War in Ukraine Russian invasion of Ukraine