President Volodymyr Zelenskyy declared Tuesday that Russia has not “broken Ukrainians” nor triumphed in its war, 4 years after an invasion that has severely tested the resolve of Kyiv and its allies and fueled European fears in regards to the scale of Moscow’s ambitions.
In a show of support, greater than a dozen senior European officials headed to the Ukrainian capital to mark the grim anniversary of the conflict, which has killed tens of hundreds of individuals, upended life for tens of millions of Ukrainians, and created instability far beyond its borders.
Zelenskyy said his country has withstood the onslaught by Russia’s greater and higher equipped army, which over the past yr of fighting captured just 0.79 per cent of Ukraine’s territory, in response to the Institute for the Study of War, a Washington-based think tank. Russia now holds nearly 20 per cent of Ukraine.
“Looking back at first of the invasion and reflecting on today, we have now every right to say: We have now defended our independence, we have now not lost our statehood,” Zelenskyy said on social media, adding that Russian President Vladimir Putin has “not achieved his goals.”
“He has not broken Ukrainians; he has not won this war,” Zelenskyy said.
Despite the show of defiance, Ukraine has struggled to carry off Russia’s onslaught, and the war has brought widespread hardship for Ukrainian civilians. Russia’s aerial attacks have devastated families and denied civilians power and running water.
Because the war of attrition enters its fifth yr, a U.S.-led diplomatic push to finish the biggest conflict on the continent since World War II appears no closer to finding compromises that may make a peace deal possible.
Negotiations are stuck on what happens to the Donbas, eastern Ukraine’s industrial heartland that Russian forces mostly occupy but have didn’t seize completely, and the terms of a postwar security arrangement that Kyiv is demanding to discourage any future Russian invasion.
Zelenskyy urges Trump to go to
At a makeshift memorial in Kyiv’s central square, where hundreds of small flags and portraits show photos of fallen soldiers, Zelenskyy said he would really like U.S. President Donald Trump to go to and witness for himself Ukrainian suffering.
“Only then can one truly understand what this war is actually about,” Zelenskyy said.
Get day by day National news
Get the day’s top news, political, economic, and current affairs headlines, delivered to your inbox once a day.
Trump, who once vowed to finish the war in a day, has repeatedly modified his tone toward Putin and Zelenskyy over the past yr: sometimes criticizing the Ukrainian leader’s negotiating position while reaching out to the Russian leader and at others lashing out at Putin for heavy barrages and appearing more sympathetic to the Ukrainian predicament.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said that the invasion would proceed in pursuit of Moscow’s goals. They include a requirement that Ukraine resign its bid to hitch NATO, sharply cut its army, and cede vast swaths of territory.
Zelenskyy said he expected a fresh round of U.S.-brokered talks with Russia inside the following 10 days.
A ‘nightmare’ for Ukrainians
The variety of soldiers killed, injured or missing on either side could reach 2 million by spring, with Russia sustaining the biggest variety of troop deaths for any major power in any conflict since World War II, a report last month from the Center for Strategic and International Studies estimated.
European leaders see their countries’ own security at stake in Ukraine amid concerns that Putin may goal them next.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz wrote on X that “for 4 years, each day and each night has been a nightmare for the Ukrainians — and never only for them, but for us all. Because war is back in Europe.”
“We are going to only end it by being strong together, since the fate of Ukraine is our fate,” he added.
Putin’s dangerous gamble
Putin believes that point is on the side of his greater army, Western officials and analysts say — and that Western support will trail off and that Ukraine’s military resistance will eventually crumble. Already Trump has ended recent military aid to Ukraine — though other NATO countries now buy American weapons and provides them to Kyiv.
But French President Emmanuel Macron described the war was “a triple failure for Russia: military, economic, and strategic.”
The war “has strengthened NATO — the very expansion Russia sought to forestall — galvanized Europeans it hoped to weaken, and laid bare the fragility of an imperialism from one other age,” Macron said on X.
The European Union has also sent financial aid, but has sometimes met with reluctance from members Hungary and Slovakia.
While NATO countries have come to Ukraine’s aid, Russia has been helped by North Korea, which has sent hundreds of troops and artillery shells; Iran, which has provided drone technology; and China, which the US and analysts say has provided machine tools and chips.
Among the many European officials visiting Kyiv on Tuesday were the president of the European Council, Antonio Costa, President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen and Finnish President Alexander Stubb, in addition to seven prime ministers and 4 foreign ministers.
The one American listed among the many official guests in Kyiv ceremonies was Lt. Gen. Curtis Buzzard, a U.S. officer who represents NATO in Ukraine.
British Armed Forces Minister Al Carns said Russia’s war on Ukraine was “essentially the most defining conflict” in many years.
The war has brought a “revolution in military affairs,” especially through the rapid development of drone technology by either side, in response to Carns. Drones now cause the overwhelming majority of battlefield casualties, he said.
Each side face challenges find enough troops and are increasingly turning to uncrewed aerial drones that take the killing to areas removed from the front lines, the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies said in its annual report on the worldwide military situation.
“Given either side’ reliance on external support for materiel, decisions taken in foreign capitals will play a crucial role in shaping the war’s trajectory,” the think tank added.
The UK on Tuesday announced a brand new package of military and humanitarian support for Ukraine, including sending teams of British military medics to instruct their Ukrainian counterparts.
The associated fee of rebuilding war-battered Ukraine would amount to almost $588 billion over the following decade, in response to World Bank, the European Commission, the United Nations and the Ukrainian government.
That is almost thrice the estimated nominal GDP of Ukraine for last yr, they said in a report Monday.