EU and other Western leaders and dignitaries were in Kyiv on February 24 to send a defiant message on the second anniversary of Russia’s launch of its all-out invasion of Ukraine that they intend to continue supporting Ukraine against Moscow’s aggression.
The anniversary came with the Ukrainian military in need of equipment and supplies, especially ammunition, and Moscow looking to extend its recent battlefield gain in the Donetsk region, where its forces recaptured the mostly destroyed city of Avdiyivka.
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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy told his countrymen in a recorded video address from a Kyiv-area airport that was a scene of intense fighting early in the invasion that two years of bitter fighting means “we are 730 days closer to victory.”
“Two years ago, we met an enemy landing force here with fire,” Zelenskiy said, before adding references to the array of foreign leaders who were in Ukraine to mark the anniversary. “Two years later, we meet here our friends, our partners.”
He added that it was important that the war end “on our terms.”
Zelenskiy later welcomed European Commission President Von der Leyen, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, and Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo, whose country currently holds the rotating EU Presidency.
Meloni and Trudeau signed security agreements with Zelenskiy during their visit, and Meloni hosted a videoconference of the Group of Seven (G7) at which Zelenskiy spoke, telling the leaders he is counting on them to continue helping Ukraine.
On her arrival, von der Leyen said alongside a photo of herself on a train platform in Kyiv that she was there to mark the grim anniversary “and to celebrate the extraordinary resistance of the Ukrainian people.”
“More than ever, we stand firmly by Ukraine,” she said, “Financially, economically, militarily, morally…[u]ntil the country is finally free.”
Before arriving in Ukraine, Trudeau shared his Foreign Minister Melanie Joly’s sentiment via X, formerly Twitter, that Canada and its allies were “sending a clear message to [Russia]: Ukraine will not be defeated in the face of Putin’s illegal war.”
Protesters rallied in Berlin, London, Paris, Belgrade, and other European cities as people gathered to show support by waving the blue and yellow Ukrainian flag and demanding that Russian President Vladimir Putin put an end to the war.
Words of support poured in from Western leaders.
U.S. President Joe Biden praised the determination of Ukrainians and said “the unprecedented 50-nation global coalition in support of Ukraine, led by the United States, remains committed to providing critical assistance to Ukraine and holding Russia accountable for its aggression.”
“The American people and people around the world understand that the stakes of this fight extend far beyond Ukraine,” he said.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz urged Germans and all Europeans to “do even more — so that we can defend ourselves effectively.”
Scholz said that Germany was completely fulfilling its NATO target of 2 percent investment of total economic output into its military for the first time in decades.
Recently installed Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk cited “Two years of Ukrainian heroism. Two years of Russian barbarism. Two years of disgrace of those who remain indifferent.”
Maia Sandu, the president of Ukraine’s neighbor Moldova, where concerns are high and a long-standing contingent of Russian troops has refused to depart, thanked “Ukrainians for their tireless fight for freedom and for protecting peace in Moldova too.”
“In these two years, the free world has shown unprecedented solidarity, yet the war persists; our support must endure fiercely,” she said on X.
British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said “We must renew our determination…on this grim anniversary. This is the moment to show that tyranny will never triumph and to say once again that we will stand with Ukraine today and tomorrow.”
The anniversary came one day after the United States and European Union announced new rounds of hundreds of sanctions targeting Russia and officials responsible for the war, but with Ukrainian officials desperately pleading with the international community to avoid cutoffs in support or a “depletion of empathy.”
Ukrainians have battled fiercely since Russia invaded on February 24, 2022, after Putin, angered by Ukraine’s aspiration to join NATO, tried to cast doubt on Ukrainian nationhood and eventually said Moscow’s goal was “denazification” and demilitarization of Ukraine.
It was a new phase in a land grab that had begun eight years earlier in 2014, when Russia covertly invaded and then annexed Crimea from Ukraine and began intensive support of armed Ukrainian separatists in eastern Ukraine.
The United Nations has overwhelmingly voted to back Ukrainian territorial integrity and sovereignty.
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But a massive assistance package proposed by U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration has been blocked primarily by Republicans in Congress.
The European Union managed to pass its own $54 billion aid package for Ukraine earlier this month despite reluctance from member Hungary and talk of Ukraine fatigue.
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said in a recorded statement for the anniversary that “the situation on the battlefield remains extremely serious” and “President Putin’s aim to dominate Ukraine has not changed, and there are no indications that he is preparing for peace. But we must not lose heart.”
Earlier this week, Stoltenberg told RFE/RL’s Ukrainian Service that the alliance was an advantage that neither Russia nor China could match.
At the UN General Assembly on February 23, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said “Russia’s aim is to destroy Ukraine and they are quite outspoken about it,” adding that “The only reason for this war has been and remains Russia’s denial of Ukraine’s right to exist and its continued colonial conquest.”
Russian forces last week captured the mostly destroyed eastern city of Avdiyivka as remaining Ukrainian troops withdrew amid reported ammunition shortages to hand Moscow its first significant gain of territory in nearly a year.
The Russian military said on February 24 that Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu visited troops in occupied Ukraine in a clear effort to send a message to Ukraine and its defenders, as well as to a Russian public subjected to heavy censorship and punishments for anti-war dissenters as the “special military operation” has ground on.
“Today, in terms of the ratio of forces, the advantage is on our side,” officials quoted Shoigu as telling troops at a Russian command center.
The Russian military further said its troops were on the offensive after having taken Avdiyivka, in the Donetsk region.
Zelenskiy used an interview on the conservative Fox News channel this week to urge the U.S. Congress to pass a $60 billion aid package to help his country defend itself, saying it is cheaper than the consequences of a Russian victory.
Zelenskiy echoed warnings among Russia’s other neighbors that Putin will push further into Eastern Europe if he conquers Ukraine.
“Will Ukraine survive without Congress’s support? Of course. But not all of us,” Zelenskiy said.
On February 24, senior Zelenskiy aide Mykhaylo Podolyak said Ukraine was auditing its “available resources” and said it’s impossible to predict when the war might end without a good idea of the amount of weapons and ammunition Kyiv will have at its disposal.
He also suggested the Ukrainian president’s office is not currently in favor of peace talks with Russia as it would mean the “gradual death of Ukraine.”
Separately, Swiss President Viola Amherd was quoted as telling the Neue Zuercher Zeitung newspaper that Russia was unlikely to participate at the start of a senior-level peace conference that neutral Switzerland hopes to host in the next few months.
The remarks followed Swiss Foreign Minister Ignazio Cassis telling the United Nations that the idea was broached in January and Bern hoped for such a conference “by this summer.”
Russia currently is thought to control around one-fifth of Ukraine’s territory.
The Ukrainian military said it had destroyed a Russian A-50 surveillance aircraft after a new round of Russian drone and missile strikes on several Ukrainian regions on February 23, which if confirmed would mark the loss of the second A-50 in just over a month.
The general appointed recently by Zelenskiy as commander in chief of Ukraine’s armed forces, Oleksandr Syrskiy, said on February 24 that he is “convinced that unity is our victory.”
“And it will definitely happen,” he said, “because light always conquers darkness!”
Noting the two-year mark in the invasion, Ukraine’s General Staff asserted that Russia had suffered troop casualties of around 409,000 since February 24, 2022.
Both sides classify casualty figures, and RFE/RL cannot confirm the accuracy of accounts by either side of battlefield developments in areas of heavy fighting or of casualty claims.