Monitoring Desk
ISLAMABAD/KYIV: Ukrainians on Friday paid tribute to their fallen loved ones and vowed to fight on to victory, while Russia said its forces were making gains in the east as Moscow’s invasion enters its second year with no end in sight.
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, who is due to attend an online summit with US President Joe Biden and other leaders from the West and Japan, hailed Ukraine’s “year of invincibility”. New sanctions against Russia were expected to be announced by the leaders. In a television address, Zelenskiy said, “we have become one family.”
“There are no strangers among us anymore, Ukrainians nowadays are all friends. Ukrainians have taken in refugees, opened their homes and hearts to those forced to flee the war. “
Later, as diplomats looked on, he addressed soldiers standing at attention on Kyiv’s St Sophia Square. He presented a medal to the mother of a fallen soldier, who sobbed as she accepted it. The anniversary was a time of reflection for ordinary Ukrainians who had spent much of the year hiding in bomb shelters and helping the war effort in any way they could.
Allies show support to Ukraine
Ukraine’s allies from all over the world showed their support to Kyiv. The Eiffel Tower in Paris was lit up in the Ukrainian flag colors of blue and yellow. People dressed in Ukrainian flags with their hands on their hearts gathered at a vigil in London, where the street outside the Russian embassy was painted blue and yellow.
Thousands of Ukrainian civilians, as well as tens of thousands of soldiers on both sides, have been killed since Putin ordered the invasion a year ago, claiming it was necessary to protect Russia’s security. Ukraine sees it as an audacious attempt to subjugate an independent state. Its outnumbered and outgunned forces defeated Russia’s early-war attempt to seize Kyiv and later recaptured large swaths of occupied territory. However, Moscow still claims to have annexed nearly a fifth of Ukraine.
Russian troops have destroyed Ukrainian towns and cities, displaced millions, and left streets littered with corpses in towns they have occupied and lost. Moscow denies any involvement in war crimes. Russian forces have been replenished with hundreds of thousands of troops in recent weeks.
