Ukrainians paid tribute to their fallen loved ones on Friday and vowed to fight on to victory, while Russia said its forces were making gains in battle in the east as its invasion entered a second year with no end in sight.
At a ceremony on Kyiv’s St Sophia Square, President Volodymyr Zelensky bestowed medals to a soldier on crutches and the mother of one killed, and held back tears when a band played the national anthem.
“We have become one family. There are no more strangers among us. Ukrainians today are all fellows. Ukrainians have sheltered Ukrainians, opened their homes and hearts to those who were forced to flee the war,” Zelensky said in a television address.
“We withstand all threats, shelling, cluster bombs, cruise missiles, kamikaze drones, blackouts and cold. We are stronger than that,” he said.
“We were not defeated. And we will do everything to gain victory this year!” Zelensky was due later to attend an online summit with US President Joe Biden and other leaders of the G7 wealthy democracies, expected to denounce the war, pledge more support for Ukraine and tighten financial sanctions against Russia.
For ordinary Ukrainians who have spent much of the year hiding in bomb shelters and supporting the war effort any way they can, the anniversary meant reflection.
“I buried my son who died in military service. I also buried my husband. I think it’s very clear to you, I’m on my own now and it’s very, very hard,” said Valentyna Krysan, 75, a shop employee in Kyiv.
“I wish you a nice, peaceful day, and that such a thing will never repeat in your lives.” Allies around the world showed their support. Parislit up the Eiffel Tower in the Ukrainian flag colours of blue and yellow.
In London, where the street outside the Russian embassy was painted blue and yellow, people draped in Ukrainian flags with hands on their hearts gathered at a vigil holding a banner: “If you stand for freedom, stand for Ukraine”.
There were no major public events to mark the anniversary on Friday in Russia, which set off fireworks on Thursday for the annual “Defenders of the Fatherland” holiday and held a pop concert on Wednesday attended by President Vladimir Putin.
Tens of thousands of Ukrainian civilians are feared to have been killed along with many more soldiers on both sides since Putin ordered the invasion a year ago, saying it was necessary to protect Russia’s security.
Ukraine sees it as a brazen bid to subjugate an independent state. Its outnumbered and outgunned forces repelled Russia’s attempt to seize the capital Kyiv early in the war and later recaptured swathes of occupied territory. But Moscow still occupies nearly a fifth of Ukraine which it claims to have annexed.
Russian troops have destroyed Ukrainian towns and cities, sent one-third of the population fleeing and left streets filled with corpses in towns they have occupied and lost. Moscow denies war crimes.
In recent weeks, Russian forces, replenished with thousands of conscripts in the first mobilisation since World War II, have launched a winter offensive of trench warfare.
