Kyiv (Ukraine) (AFP) – Vladimir Putin has not broken Ukraine, its leader Volodymyr Zelensky said Tuesday, as the Kremlin marked the fourth year of its invasion by vowing that it will keep fighting Europe’s bloodiest conflict since World War II until it achieves its goals. Moscow had hoped to take Kyiv in days when it launched its invasion on February 24, 2022. Four years later — with hundreds of thousands dead, millions forced to flee, much of eastern Ukraine destroyed and US-led peace talks still deadlocked over territory — it conceded that it has not achieved all it wants in the country.
“The goals haven’t been fully achieved yet, which is why the military operation continues,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters in response to an AFP question. Ukraine, meanwhile, was ready to do “everything” it could to secure peace, Zelensky said in a video address that featured images of Ukrainians carrying out acts of resistance against Russian soldiers in the opening days of the conflict. But any settlement must not “betray” the price paid by Ukrainians throughout the conflict, he said.
“Putin has not achieved his goals. He did not break the Ukrainians. He did not win this war. We have preserved Ukraine, and we will do everything to achieve peace — and to ensure there is justice,” Zelensky said. “We want peace. Strong, dignified, and lasting peace,” he said, adding that any agreement “must not simply be signed, it must be accepted by Ukrainians.” “Everything Ukraine has gone through. It must not be surrendered, forgotten, or betrayed,” he added.
In a later video address to the European Parliament, Zelensky urged Brussels to set out a clear timeline for his country’s accession to the bloc. Several European leaders including Finnish President Alexander Stubb and Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson visited Kyiv on Tuesday to mark the anniversary. European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen was also there, reaffirming that Europe stood “unwaveringly with Ukraine, financially, militarily, and through this harsh winter.”
Zelensky was also hosting a videoconference with Kyiv’s top allies, including Britain, France, and Germany, to push for more support to deter the Russian invasion. In the suburb of Irpin — where the bodies of hundreds of civilians were discovered in 2022 after it and the neighbouring suburb of Bucha were occupied by Russian forces — kindergarten manager Olena Ponomariova said Ukrainians had become united and more resilient. But she “can’t say” what victory would look like, she told AFP, adding: “I don’t know if that will happen, but let’s hope it will.”
– Territory dispute – The United States has been pushing to end the conflict, mediating talks between the two sides this year in Geneva and Abu Dhabi, but they remain at odds over the issue of territory. Russia, which occupies around 20 percent of Ukraine, is fighting to gain full control of Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region as part of any deal. It has threatened to take it by force if Kyiv does not cave at the negotiating table.
Ukraine has rejected the demand and said it would not sign a deal without security guarantees from allies — including the US — to deter Russia from invading again. Despite heavy losses, Russian troops have in recent months advanced on the front line, particularly in the eastern Donbas region, which Moscow wants to annex. The Russian army seized more territory during the fourth year of the Ukraine war than in the preceding two years combined, according to an AFP analysis of data from the Institute for the Study of War (ISW).
Since February 24, 2025 — the third anniversary of Russia’s invasion — Moscow’s troops have taken 4,524 square kilometres (1,747 square miles), an area slightly larger than the US state of Rhode Island. That is according to data from the ISW, which works with the Critical Threats Project (part of the American Enterprise Institute, or AEI), another US think-tank specialising in conflict. The grinding four-year war has devastated Ukraine, which even before the fighting was one of the poorest countries in Europe. The cost of post-war reconstruction is estimated at around $588 billion over the next decade, according to a joint World Bank, EU and UN report with Kyiv, published on Monday.
Russia cast its decision to send troops into Ukraine as a defensive move to halt Ukraine’s ambition to join NATO. Ukraine, a former Soviet republic, considers the war to be a resurgence of Russian imperialism aimed at subjugating the Ukrainian people.
© 2024 AFP
