Volodymyr Zelensky on Friday hailed Ukraine’s “furious year of invincibility” against Vladimir Putin’s invasion before solemnly presenting awards to the families of soldiers who fell fighting to defend their country.
On the first anniversary of Putin’s war, with atrocities that have appalled the world, the Ukrainian president told how February 24, 2022, was the “longest day of our lives”.
Kyiv had been expected to fall within days to the sheer might of the Russian army after its snaking lines of armoured vehicles rolled across the border from Belarus towards the capital. But, against all odds, it didn’t.
“We did not raise the white flag, and began to defend the blue and yellow,” said Mr Zelensky who defiantly remained in the city. “We were not afraid, we did not break down, we did not surrender. We didn’t know what would happen tomorrow, but we realised for sure: Every tomorrow is worth fighting for!”
Ukraine “surprised” and “inspired” the world, he added, and now “we see the light of victory” after a “year of bravery, a year of pain, a year of hope, a year of endurance, a year of unity”.
"The year of invincibility. The furious year of invincibility. Its main result is that we endured. We were not defeated. And we will do everything to gain victory this year”, he said.
At a ceremony outside Saint Sophia cathedral in Kyiv on Friday morning, Mr Zelensky, with the pain of the Ukrainian people etched on his face, presented the Order of the Golden Star to the wives and mothers of fallen soldiers. “We will never forget the heroic actions of your husband,” he told one grieving war widow as she struggled to hold back tears.
Unimaginable suffering has been inflicted on so many people across Ukraine, in Mariupol, Kharkiv, Bucha, Zaporizhzhia, Mykolaiv, in smaller towns, cities and villages across Donetsk and Luhansk in the eastern Donbas region, and in more southern provinces, in Kyiv and as far west as Lviv.
More than 40,000 civilians are reported to have been killed, including hundreds of children, with millions robbed of a normal childhood.
The Ukrainian military death toll is put at more than 100,000 by Western officials. The terrible human pain unleashed by Putin then stretches relentlessly east reaching far beyond Moscow, Yekaterinburg to Vladivostok with so many Russian families now mourning the loss of a son, father or brother. Britain puts Russia’s casualty figure as high as 200,000, with as many as 60,000 killed, including mercenaries from Putin’s “private army”, the Wagner Group.
The conflict shows no sign of abating, with the Russian president throwing ever more young men into battle, often poorly-trained, for a spring offensive which so far has seen little Russian gains at a huge cost in lives.
Monstrous war crimes have been committed, executions of civilians, torture and rape. The sheer brutality of Putin’s onslaught left widespread civic destruction, most starkly in the south eastern city of Mariupol where Ukrainian soldiers in the sprawling Azovstal steel plant defied a Russian siege for months.
But he failed to capture the port of Odesa, “the jewel” of the Black Sea.
Russian forces did succeed in seizing the city of Kherson in March but by November they had been forced to retreat east across the Dnipro river.
As he struggled to make military gains, Putin resorted to trying to break the will of the Ukrainian people by destroying energy and water plants in the middle of winter. But this also failed. On Friday, Joe Biden, Rishi Sunak and other leaders of the G7 (US, UK, France, Germany, Italy, Canada and Japan) were meeting virtually with Mr Zelensky to mark the anniversary and announce new sanctions.
Mr Sunak reaffirmed Britain’s position at the helm of the Western coalition backing Ukraine, tweeting simply: “Stand together. Stand united.”
In Downing Street he led a minute’s silence held in the UK at 11am to mark the anniversary.
Britain has led the way in arming Ukraine, first with shoulder-fired anti-tank weapons, and then Challenger II main battle tanks.
The US president made a surprise visit to Kyiv on Monday during which he stated that America would back Ukraine in the war for “as long as it takes”. French president Emmanuel Macron messaged this morning: “To solidarity. To victory. To peace.” German chancellor Olaf Scholz stated: “The sooner Putin realises that he will not achieve his imperialist goal, the greater the chance of an end to the war.”
There were no major public events to mark the anniversary in Russia on Friday.
Putin has sought to blame the West for “starting the war” and for its victims.
Concerns are also growing that China was considering giving military support, possibly drones, for his Ukraine invasion, which would dramatically escalate the conflict. The UN General Assembly overwhelmingly adopted a resolution demanding that Russia pull out and stop fighting. There were 141 votes in favour and 32 abstentions. Six countries joined Russia to vote no — Belarus, North Korea, Eritrea, Mali, Nicaragua and Syria.
