Restoration of Izium in Kharkiv Oblast will require a lot of efforts, but life must return here.

During the siege of the city in March-April, Izium was actually turned into a ruin. The city remains without electricity, heat, water, demining continues. The number of civilian casualties is being specified, but it is hundreds of people.

According to preliminary estimates, 80% of Izium is destroyed. Staying in the city is still dangerous because there are still whole streets with anti-personnel mines and remnants of those mines that are even prohibited by the Geneva Convention.

Gwara Media has already visited the liberated settlements and reported from Kozacha Lopan, Izium, and Balakliia.

Damaged bridge in Izium / Oleksandr Magula / Gwara Media
A gas mask used by Russians to torture people in the basement of the police station in Izium / Oleksandr Magula / Gwara Media
Ukrainian policeman looks at the place where the occupiers tortured people. The basement of the police station in Izium where the Russian torture chamber was located / Oleksandr Magula / Gwara Media
Room on the first floor of the torture chamber in the police station / Oleksandr Magula / Gwara Media
Locals at Izium city center / Oleksandr Magula / Gwara Media
Civilians in the central square of Izium in line for humanitarian aid / Oleksandr Magula / Gwara Media
Civilians repair a car damaged by shelling / Oleksandr Magula / Gwara Media
Daria, 16, looking towards her destroyed house / Oleksandr Magula / Gwara Media
Memorial to the victims of the Holodomor. The inscription: “We do not need revenge. Only remembrance, bread in every house, every day” / Oleksandr Magula / Gwara Media

This material was developed by Gwara Media as part of the IWPR program “Supporting regional media of Ukraine during the war” with the support of the European Union, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Norway, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Great Britain.
The content of the material is the sole responsibility of Gwara Media. It does not reflect the views of the European Union, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom of Norway, the United Kingdom Government or the Institute for War and Peace Reporting.