Ukrainians move to unravel Russian occupation in recaptured villages

On a road leading east from the city of Kharkiv into the newly retaken territory, Ukrainian military personnel were hauling a stricken tank marked with the letter “Z" abandoned by Russians who controlled this area until Ukrainian forces broke through their defenses just last week.

Within days, Moscow lost more territory than it had gained in months of grinding combat, relinquishing more than 3,500 square miles in the Kharkiv region as Ukrainian forces seized the initiative.

The sudden reversal on the battlefield has upended the order that Russia imposed in areas under its control. While most were celebrating, those who collaborated with the Russians were lying low—or were on the run.

“I never thought I would be so happy to see our flag," said Vitaliya Apanasenko, who emerged from her home in the city of Balakliya on Friday to find Ukrainian forces driving through the streets. Speaking by phone from the city, she described handing out ribbons in the colors of the Ukrainian flag to soldiers. “I’m very glad it all ended this way."

A clear picture of what happened across territories occupied by Russia has yet to emerge. Phone networks are largely down and authorities have restricted access for the media while they remove mines and work to identify who collaborated with the occupation authorities.

“No traitor can escape responsibility," said the head of the Kharkiv regional military administration Oleh Synehubov, adding that the head of one village alleged to have collaborated with the Russians had been detained.

In local chat groups, there were calls to identify collaborators as Ukrainian forces closed in.

In towns and villages retaken by Ukraine, residents have wasted no time in erasing the marks of Russia’s presence. Where the Russians painted their tricolor on signs and bus stops, locals have already restored the blue and yellow of the Ukrainian flag. A billboard declaring “We are one with Russia" was torn down and revealed verses by Ukraine’s national poet Taras Shevchenko underneath.

For Moscow, it is the biggest setback since Russian forces pulled back from the capital, Kyiv, in March to reveal hundreds of bodies buried in mass graves or strewn in the street.

Unlike Kyiv, however, where the Russians’ presence was relatively short-lived, in the Kharkiv region they have had longer to put their stamp on the local population.

Ukrainian police moving into newly liberated towns and villages here have urged residents to report crimes committed by Russian forces and to identify their Ukrainian accomplices as they begin settling accounts.

On Sunday, Maria Grigorov led Ukrainian police to a sunken patch of earth at the end of the yard where she buried her neighbors after finding their bodies in a pool of blood days after Russian forces arrived in Zaliznychne. “Their heads are here and their feet are there," she told the police, pointing out where they lay.

What happened to the two men is unclear. Ms. Grigorov told police she had noticed the neighbors’ door was ajar while feeding her chickens and went to check on them. Both men had bullet wounds to the head.

As their remains were dug up, Ms. Grigorov said the fear that hung over her for the past six months was gone.

A neighbor who helped bury the bodies said the Russians had left suddenly, beating an unorganized retreat last Wednesday after three days of heavy shelling. “It happened so quickly," he said. “In an hour and a half, there was no one here."

Standing on his porch the following morning, he saw Ukrainian forces roll in.

“It’s hard to comprehend," said Oleksandr Verbityskyi, a security guard at a grain store that Russian forces used as their headquarters in the village.

Ms. Apanasenko said most of them had fled Balakliya when it became clear the Russians wouldn’t hold out. As their grip on the city slipped, residents detained by Russians in the local police station and a nearby bank branch broke free, she said.

Some, however, are still missing. Relatives searching for them are appealing for information in posts online.

Security services said they detained a police chief who joined the occupation authorities in Balakliya as he tried to flee to Russian-occupied territory further east. In the city of Kupyansk, security services said they had detained a 55-year-old man who joined the Russians and assumed a position as head of the state-owned forestry enterprise. A 47-year-old woman who took a job there as chief accountant was detained too, security services said.

The sudden collapse in Kharkiv has shattered the illusion of permanence Russia has projected in areas it seized. That is likely to embolden resistance to its occupation in other parts of Ukraine. It will also give pause to Ukrainians who have thrown their lot in with the Russians elsewhere—whether out of genuine conviction or because they believed they were there to stay.

Just three weeks ago, Vitaliy Gantchev stood on stage in a square in Kupyansk, addressing dozens of men, women and children on the occasion of Russian flag day. “I wish everyone to proudly bear the title of a Russian person—a citizen of the Russian Federation," said the Moscow-installed head of the Kharkiv region. “I am sure that we are on the right track."

Now Kupyansk is back in Ukrainian hands and Mr. Gantchev is on the run. In a video filmed in a field, Mr. Gantchev urged civilians to flee to safety in Russia and said his administration would pay them 10,000 rubles, equivalent to around $162.

Kharkiv residents who applied for Russian citizenship during the occupation will be able to obtain passports in Russia, according to the Moscow-installed head of the Kupyansk district, Maxim Gubin.

Russia’s ruling party said it had set up tents for civilians fleeing the Kharkiv region because of intense shelling by Ukrainian forces. The Russian-installed administration of Kharkiv said more than 400 vehicles were queuing at the border.