Zelensky visits Kharkiv, hands 'Hero City' award to mayor

After visiting front-line positions in Donetsk Oblast, President Volodymyr Zelensky traveled to the eastern city of Kharkiv on March 22, presenting Mayor Ihor Terekhov with the "Hero City of Ukraine" award.

"Thanks to the residents of this beautiful city, it defends our independence side by side with other cities of our country," Zelensky said on Telegram.

In Kharkiv, Ukraine's president held a meeting with local officials and the military command center, discussing the restoration of liberated territories, the arrangement of fortifications, the infrastructure's reconstruction, and humanitarian assistance.

Zelensky also talked to energy services about providing Kharkiv Oblast's settlements with electricity in the face of regular Russian attacks on Ukraine's energy infrastructure.

He awarded Ukrainian servicemen defending the region against the Russian invasion and visited one of the local military hospitals.

Kharkiv is located in Ukraine's northeast, just 30 kilometers away from the Russian-Ukrainian border. Zelensky gave Kharkiv the honorary title "Hero City" in March last year to acknowledge how the city withheld full-scale Russian invasion.

In 2022, at least 1,600 civilians were killed in Kharkiv Oblast as a result of Russia's war, and almost 3,300 high-rise buildings were damaged by Russian missiles, according to Dmytro Chubenko, a spokesman for the prosecutor's office.