Sudzha, about six miles inside Russian territory, had a prewar population of 5,000 people and contains infrastructure pumping Russian gas towards Europe.
"General Syrskyi reported on the completion of the liberation of the town of Sudzha from the Russian military. A Ukrainian military commandant's office is being established there now," said Zelenskiy, after receiving a briefing from the commander in chief of Ukraine's armed forces, Oleksandr Syrskyi.
The claim could not be independently verified, but a Ukrainian television channel broadcast a report from Sudzha on Wednesday suggesting it was under Ukrainian control.
While some residents have remained, sheltering from the fighting in basements, most have been evacuated. "We hid in the bushes," said the Sudzha resident Tatyana Anikeyeva, speaking to Russian television from a facility helping evacuees. "The sound of the cannonade continued without any break.
The house was shaking." Sudzha hosts a metering station for natural gas from western Siberia, which then flows through Ukrainian pipelines to Europe, accounting for about 3% of European imports.
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