Firefighters put out the fire at a railway station after a Russian strike in Kostiantynivka in the Donetsk region, Ukraine on Sunday, February 25, 2024. A woman was wounded and a railway station, shops and residential houses were badly damaged amid heavy bombing. Photo / AP
Firefighters put out the fire at a railway station after a Russian strike in Kostiantynivka in the Donetsk region, Ukraine on Sunday, February 25, 2024. A woman was wounded and a railway station, shops and residential houses were badly damaged amid heavy bombing. Photo / AP
Rustan Umerov, speaking at the “Ukraine. Year 2024″ forum inKyiv, said each delayed aid shipment meant Ukrainian troop losses and underscored Russia’s superior military might.
Commemorations to mark the second anniversary of the war on Saturday brought expressions of continued support, new bilateral security agreements and new aid commitments from Ukraine’s Western allies. But Umerov said that they still needed to deliver on their commitments if Ukraine is to have any chance of holding out against Russia.
“We look to the enemy: their economy is almost $2 trillion,” he said, adding that they use up to 15 per cent of official and non-official budget funds for the war, which constitutes more than $150 billion. He said whenever a commitment doesn’t arrive on time, “we lose people, we lose territories”.
People gather in Hyde Park ahead of a march to the Russian Embassy organised by the Russian Democratic Society to mark the two-year anniversary of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Photo / AP
During a press conference after the forum on Sunday, Zelenskyy said four brigades did not take part in the country’s counteroffensive against Russian forces because they hadn’t received the equipment they were expecting.
“Can you imagine the numbers of guys who would have fought who couldn’t? The ones that had to sit and wait for the equipment they never received?”
The Ukrainian leader also confirmed plans for an international peace summit to tackle issues exacerbated by the war, such as nuclear or food security, in Switzerland in 2024. That would be followed by a potential invitation to Russian representatives to attend a second summit later in the year. However, Zelenskyy said Ukraine would not submit to a peace plan that did not serve its interests, and discarded the idea of direct negotiations.
“Is it possible to talk to a man who kills his opponents?” Zelenskyy said, referring to Russian President Vladimir Putin. “We will offer a platform where he can agree that he has lost this war and that it was a mistake.”
Zelenskyy also spoke about ongoing fighting in northeastern Ukraine, where front-line conflict has intensified in recent months, leading to the capture of the Ukrainian city of Avdiivka. He said Moscow was using heavy artillery fire to put pressure on Ukrainian forces in the directions of Kharkiv and Kupiansk.
A damaged church is seen after a Russian attack in Kostiantynivka in the Donetsk region, Ukraine on Sunday, February 25, 2024. Photo / AP
However, his speech remained defiant. “Will Ukraine lose in this war? I am sure that it won’t. Our most difficult moment was on February 24 two years ago. We have no alternative but to win ... If Ukraine loses, then we will not exist. We do not want such an ending to this fight for our lives.”
General Oleksandr Tarnavskyi, who leads Ukrainian forces fighting in the area, said on Sunday his troops had retreated from much of Lastochkyne, a western suburb of Avdiivka. Some Ukrainian media on Saturday reported Russian troops had taken Lastochkyne, but there was no official confirmation from Kyiv and the battlefield situation appeared fluid.
Jake Sullivan, US President Joe Biden’s national security adviser, on Sunday asserted he believes Kyiv has a path to victory, as long as Western allies deliver “the tools that it needs”.
Speaking to NBC in Washington, Sullivan acknowledged Ukrainian forces lost Avdiivka because of a shortage of ammunition, calling on US Congress to “step up” and pass the additional $60b in security assistance requested by the Biden administration.
“I think it’s important to take a step back and remember that two years ago, everyone was predicting that Ukraine was going to fall,” Sullivan said, adding that Moscow has already “failed in its fundamental objective” to “subjugate” its neighbour.
“The reality is that Putin gains every day that Ukraine does not get the resources it needs, and Ukraine suffers,” Sullivan added.
Also on Sunday, Germany’s top diplomat announced during a visit to southern Ukraine that Berlin would send Kyiv an extra €100 million ($108m) in humanitarian aid, according to Germany’s dpa agency.
Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock then had to abort a visit to a water supply station in the city of Mykolaiv after a Russian drone was spotted in the area, dpa reported. Baerbock and her delegation rushed back into their armoured vehicles, and the drone briefly followed the convoy before veering off, the agency said.
Russian shelling and rocket strikes on Sunday continued to pummel Ukraine’s south and east, as local Ukrainian officials reported at least two civilians were killed and eight others were wounded in the Zaporizhzhia and Kherson provinces.
A woman was wounded and a railway station turned into a smouldering ruin amid heavy shelling in the eastern city of Kostiantynivka, according to the head of the municipal military administration. Ukraine’s public broadcaster, Suspilne, cited local police as saying the strikes also damaged an Orthodox church, more than a dozen residential buildings and dozens of shops, a post office, schools and local government offices.
