KYIV: President Volodymyr Zelenskiy renewed his call on Tuesday for Ukraine to join the European Union by 2027, as European leaders gathered in Kyiv to mark four years since Russia launched its full-scale invasion.
In an address to the nation, Zelenskiy said Russia had failed to achieve its original objectives and insisted Ukraine would not betray its people in any negotiations with Moscow.
“He has not won this war,” Zelenskiy said of Russian President Vladimir Putin. “We have preserved Ukraine, and we will do everything to achieve peace. And to ensure justice.”
Zelenskiy also appealed to U.S. President Donald Trump to visit Kyiv, saying only by witnessing the conflict first-hand could foreign leaders fully grasp its human cost.
European leaders echoed his remarks. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said Moscow was “not as strong as it would like the world to think”, while French President Emmanuel Macron expressed scepticism that the war would end soon, citing what he described as Russia’s lack of willingness to halt hostilities.
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NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said Ukraine needed sustained supplies of ammunition to counter what he called “Russian terror from the skies”.
Zelenskiy’s address included previously unreleased footage from the underground facility on Bankova Street where he and his advisers worked in the early hours of the invasion in February 2022. He recalled rejecting an offer from then U.S. President Joe Biden to evacuate, saying he needed “ammunition, not a ride”.
Meanwhile, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said Russia would continue its military campaign until its objectives were met.
Ukrainians gathered in central Kyiv to lay flowers at a memorial to fallen soldiers, underscoring the human toll of Europe’s largest conflict since the Second World War.
