Four years since Russia launched its full-scale invasion, people across Ukraine have remembered their dead from a war which shows no sign of ending.
As the conflict enters a fifth year, the Ukrainian military continues to resist being overrun by Russian forces, but military losses are mounting on both sides and Ukraine’s population faces near-daily aerial attacks.
On Tuesday, Volodymyr Zelensky said “Ukraine never chose this war”, adding: “We have defended our independence, we have not lost our statehood.”
The Kremlin, which believed it could capture Kyiv within days, acknowledged its war aims “haven’t been fully achieved yet” and said it intended to continue attacking Ukraine.
Spokesman Dmitry Peskov repeated a frequent Kremlin accusation that western support for Ukraine had enlarged the conflict, turning it into a “confrontation between Russia and the West”.
Russia now controls just under 20% of Ukraine but the Ukrainian military has prevented it from capturing the entirety of the eastern Donbas region.
A minute’s silence at 10:00 brought Kyiv to a halt on a sombre day for the country, though one on which a sense of solidarity was palpable.
In the city’s Maidan square, where a growing host of flags has commemorated the dead since the launch of Russia’s full-scale invasion, banners and heads were lowered as people stood in silent contemplation.
Surrounded by the glowing 11th Century mosaics of the Cathedral of St Sophia, in the heart of the capital, Zelensky and his wife Olena led a prayer service.
The Ukrainian president was accompanied by some of his most ardent European supporters, including Finland’s Alexander Stubb, Sweden’s Ulf Kristersson and European Commission President Ursula Von der Leyen.
In Bucha, a town west of the capital that in 2022 witnessed some of the worst horrors that have accompanied Russia’s invasion, a steady stream of people laid flowers on the black granite headstones of soldiers.
“The war has taken a lot of lives,” observed a man called Valentyn, who had come to visit the graves of fallen comrades.
