Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has praised Ukrainians for withstanding four years of Russian attacks with \u201cimmense courage\u201d, saying Moscow has failed to break their spirit or win the war it started.<\/p>\n
Zelenskyy delivered the remarks on Tuesday in an address marking the anniversary of Russia\u2019s full-scale invasion on February 24, 2022, as Ukraine endures punishing winter attacks on its energy grid and struggles to make progress in peace talks.<\/p>\n list of 4 items<\/span>end of list<\/span><\/section>\n \u201cWe have every right to say: We have defended our independence. We have not lost our statehood,\u201d Zelenskyy said. \u201c[Russian President Vladimir] Putin has not achieved his goals. He has not broken Ukrainians. He has not won this war.\u201d<\/p>\n In a show of support, more than a dozen senior European officials \u2013 including European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, Finnish President Alexander Stubb and seven prime ministers \u2013 travelled to Ukraine\u2019s capital, Kyiv, to mark the anniversary of the conflict.<\/p>\n The war has killed hundreds of thousands of people, upended life for millions of Ukrainians and sparked far-reaching security concerns across Europe.\u00a0The number of soldiers killed, wounded or missing on both sides could reach two million by spring, analysts say.<\/p>\n The European Union pledged continued \u201cpolitical, financial, economic, humanitarian, military and diplomatic support\u201d for Ukraine. Von der Leyen said the bloc will deliver one way or another on a planned 90-\u2060billion-euro ($105bn) loan for Ukraine, which has so far been blocked by Hungary.<\/p>\n Leaders of the Group of Seven powers, which include the United States, also reaffirmed their \u201cunwavering support for Ukraine\u201d. In a joint statement, they threw their weight behind ongoing peace negotiations led by US President Donald Trump, which they said Europe had a \u201cleading role to play in\u201d.<\/p>\n More than 30 leaders in the \u201cCoalition of the Willing\u201d supporting Ukraine called for Russia to agree to an \u201cunconditional ceasefire\u201d.<\/p>\n Al Jazeera\u2019s Audrey MacAlpine, reporting from Kyiv, said the core of Zelenskyy\u2019s message was the Ukrainian people \u201chave a right to defend themselves and their independence, especially when that independence is being called into question now amid the ongoing peace negotiations\u201d.<\/p>\n Russia now controls 19.5 percent of Ukraine\u2019s territory, including 7 percent it took before the 2022 full-scale invasion. But its progress has been slow and painstaking since 2023, morphing into a bloody battle of attrition centred on the mineral-rich Donbas region of eastern Ukraine, which Moscow wants to annex.<\/p>\n According to the Institute for the Study of War, a Washington, DC-based think tank, Russian forces captured 0.79 percent of Ukrainian territory in the past year of fighting, their largest advance since 2022.<\/p>\n Russian and Ukrainian officials began their first direct talks, mediated by the US, in January but appear to remain deadlocked on major issues of territory and security guarantees for Ukraine.<\/p>\n Moscow wants Kyiv to cede control of the Donbas, its industrial heartland, which Moscow mostly occupies but has failed to seize completely. Ukraine has rejected that demand and said it will not sign a deal without security guarantees from its allies, including the US, to deter a future Russian invasion.<\/p>\n There is no date set for the next round of talks, but an aide to Zelenskyy said they could take place at the end of the week.<\/p>\n Zelenskyy on Tuesday said Ukraine is ready to do \u201ceverything\u201d it can to secure peace but won\u2019t \u201cbetray\u201d the price paid by Ukrainians throughout the conflict.<\/p>\n \u201cWe want peace \u2013 strong, dignified and lasting peace,\u201d he said, adding that any agreement \u201cmust not simply be signed. It must be accepted by Ukrainians.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe cannot, we must not, give it away, forget it, betray it.\u201d<\/p>\n In a video address to the European Parliament, Zelenskyy called on the EU to accelerate Kyiv\u2019s admission to the union.<\/p>\n Yuriy Sak, a former adviser to Ukraine\u2019s defence minister, told Al Jazeera that \u201cUkraine should not be giving up anything\u201d further in the negotiations because it already has made more concessions than Ukrainians wanted.<\/p>\n He accused Russia of holding onto a \u201cmaximalist and unrealistic\u201d position.<\/p>\n \u201cTherefore, unfortunately at this stage, the peace process has not produced the results that Ukraine wants, that the world wants,\u201d Sak said.<\/p>\n \u201cBecause we see Russia\u2019s unwillingness to approach the negotiating process in good faith, we continue to build up our defence industry. We continue to strengthen our Euro-Atlantic alliances.\u201d<\/p>\n The Center for Strategic and International Studies think tank estimated that Russia has suffered 325,000 soldier deaths from February 2022 to December 2025 \u2013 the largest number of soldier deaths for any major power in any conflict since World War II.<\/p>\n The Kremlin acknowledged it has not fully achieved its war goals and said it would continue fighting until it does.<\/p>\n In a televised address, Putin said Ukraine and its allies are \u201cpushing themselves to the edge\u201d in their determination to defeat Moscow, a move he said they will \u201cregret\u201d.<\/p>\n Al Jazeera\u2019s Yulia Shapovalova, reporting from Moscow, outlined Russia\u2019s endgame.<\/p>\n \u201cIt wants the entirety of Donbas, plus Zaporizhia and Kherson, to be recognised as Russian. It wants to continue pressuring Ukraine, and it\u2019s not going to give up. Obviously, Ukraine doesn\u2019t want to give up its territories either.\u201d<\/p>\n Foreign policy analyst Andrey Kortuno said Russia\u2019s leaders would benefit from such territorial concessions.<\/p>\n \u201cOf course, it is something the Russian leadership can claim as a victory \u2013 that Russia will have four more regions and an additional couple of million people,\u201d he told Al Jazeera.<\/p>\n The mood on the streets of Kyiv on Tuesday was subdued with a few dozen people gathering at a ceremony in the central square and soldiers carrying flags to remember the fallen in silence. War weariness is many Ukrainians\u2019 prevailing emotion.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t think it will end quickly because Russia hates us and will do everything possible to destroy us,\u201d said Svitlana Yur, 48.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has praised Ukrainians for withstanding four years of Russian attacks with \u201cimmense courage\u201d, saying Moscow has failed to break their spirit or win the war it started. Zelenskyy delivered the remarks on Tuesday in an address marking the anniversary of Russia\u2019s full-scale invasion on February 24, 2022, as Ukraine endures punishing […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13366,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13365","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-europe-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13365","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13365"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13365\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/13366"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13365"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13365"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13365"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Recommended Stories <\/h2>\n
Questions over territory, security<\/h2>\n
![\"On](\"https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/INTERACTIVE-UKRAINE-GAINS-FEB-23-2026-copy-1771917424.png?quality=80\")
<\/p>\n\u2018Dignified, lasting peace\u2019<\/h2>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/AP26052517271657-1771919912.jpg?w=770&resize=770%2C513&quality=80\")
\u2018Pushing themselves to the edge\u2019<\/h2>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"