Volodymyr Zelensky has thanked his troops on a visit to a newly captured city in the northeast province of Kharkiv.
On Wednesday, the Ukrainian president travelled to Izium to attend a flag-raising ceremony.
The now devastated city was used by the Russians as a key supply hub, before it was liberated late last week by the Ukrainian army as part of the significant advance it has made in northeast Ukraine.
In total, Kyiv is believed to have retaken about 8,000 square kilometres in the region in under a week.
The president said the presence of Ukraine’s forces had breathed life back into places like Izium.
“I see how people meet them, in what a sensitive moment. It means that with our army, the life comes back,” he said.
In other developments, the Kremlin is “almost certainly” sourcing weapons from Iran and North Korea as it struggles with supply shortages, the British Ministry of Defence (MoD).
Defence experts believe the Russian army has been forced to buy from the pariah states in part because of the impact of Western sanctions.
