Ukraine is marking its second Independence Day since Russia’s full-scale invasion
Individuals have a look at a big column of burnt out and captured Russian tanks and infantry carriers which have been on show on the central Khreshchatyk boulevard as Ukrainians mark Independence Day in Kyiv, Ukraine, Thursday, Aug. 24, 2023. (AP Picture/Efrem Lukatsky)
The Related Press
KYIV, Ukraine — Ukraine on Thursday marked its second Independence Day since Russia’s full-scale invasion, with officers vowing to maintain up their struggle to drive out the Kremlin’s forces and native folks remembering their fallen family members.
The nationwide vacation coincided with the conflict’s 18-month milestone, giving a somber temper to the commemorations.
“We bear in mind everybody who gave their lives for freedom and independence, for the free way forward for Ukraine,” Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy mentioned in a social media publish.
He mentioned that an impartial Ukraine is “what we’re preventing for.”
Within the northeastern Kharkiv area, households visited a cemetery the place fallen Ukrainian troopers are buried.
Kateryna Krotchenko, the mom of Serhii Krotchenko who was killed close to Bakhmut, cleaned his grave.
“He was an strange boy who beloved life and dreamed of one thing,” she advised The Related Press.
“Subsequently, he didn’t settle for the truth that conflict had come to our land and determined to (enroll) voluntarily,” she mentioned. “We agreed along with his choice. We didn’t assume it could be like this.”
European Union international coverage chief Josep Borrell mentioned Ukraine was preventing for “the values all of us stand for”: sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity.
That battle has earned the help of international allies, particularly NATO alliance member nations which have supplied Kyiv with subtle new weaponry. The brand new weapons have allowed Ukraine to launch a grinding counteroffensive.
The vacation was noticed in opposition to a backdrop of continued preventing.
Ukrainian intelligence items along with the Ukrainian navy landed on the western aspect of Russia-occupied Crimea to strike at Russian army belongings there, in accordance with Ukrainian army intelligence spokesman Andrii Yusov.
In Ukraine’s southern Kherson area, in the meantime, a Russian strike severely injured a 7-year-old lady whose house was hit, Gov. Oleksandr Prokudin mentioned.
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