KYIV, 24 Aug: A somber atmosphere pervaded Ukraine\u2019s 33rd Independence Day on Saturday, as the nation\u2019s fight to repel Russia\u2019s full-scale invasion reached a 30-month milestone. No fireworks, parades or concerts were planned and instead Ukrainians marked the day with commemorations for civilians and soldiers killed in the war.
\nUkrainians flooded social media with messages of gratitude and support, greeting each other and thanking the soldiers on the front lines. In the outpouring of unity, there\u2019s a shared acknowledgment that the two-and-a-half years have been tough, with fatigue increasingly setting in.
\n\u201cIndependence is the silence we experience when we lose our people,\u201d President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said to the nation. \u201cIndependence descends into the shelter during an air raid, only to endure and rise again and again to tell the enemy: \u2018You will achieve nothing.\u2019\u201d
\nIn central Kyiv, people paraded in festive \u201cvyshyvankas,\u201d Ukrainian traditional embroidered shirts. Some took pictures with the national blue-yellow flag in front of an \u201cI Love Ukraine\u201d sign near a makeshift memorial dedicated to the fallen soldiers.
\nMany people came from regions around Ukraine to the capital for the occasion. Ukraine declared independence from the Soviet Union on Aug. 24, 1991.
\n\u201cWe can celebrate this holiday thanks to our soldiers \u2014 because of them we live,\u201d said Oksana Stavnycha, who came to Kyiv from Vinnytsia with her 7-year-old daughter and husband. They planned to lay flowers to honor Ukraine\u2019s fallen soldiers.
\n\u201cThe price of our independence is very high, and every day many men give up their lives for it.\u201d
\nZelenskyy pointed out that the war, which Russia launched on Feb. 24, 2022, has now spread to its own territory.
\n\u201cThose who seek to sow evil on our land will reap its fruits on their own soil,\u201d he said, referring to Ukraine\u2019s incursion earlier this month into Russia\u2019s Kursk region.
\nThe president symbolically chose to record his address in the northeastern town of Sumy, near the Russian border, where Ukrainian forces crossed into Russia on Aug. 6.
\n\u201c913 days ago, Russia launched its war against us, partly through Sumy region,\u201d Zelenskyy said. \u201cThey violated not only sovereign borders but also the boundaries of cruelty and common sense, driven by an insatiable desire to destroy us.\u201d
\nUkraine\u2019s surprise incursion into Russia\u2019s Kursk region, gave the war a startling turn, adding a new front to the conflict to counter Russia\u2019s grinding advances in eastern Ukraine\u2019s Donetsk region. Ukraine quickly seized considerable Russian territory, including scores of small towns, and captured hundreds of Russian soldiers, moves that may influence the war\u2019s trajectory.
\n\u201cAnd those who sought to turn our lands into a buffer zone should now worry that their own country doesn\u2019t become a buffer federation,\u201d Zelenskyy said. \u201cThis is how independence responds.\u201d
\nUkraine\u2019s military claims to hold 1,200 square kilometers (480 square miles) of Russian territory in Kursk, and in the past week it has also launched drone attacks that have struck strategic bridges and Russian airfields and drone bases.
\nUkraine\u2019s top military commander, Gen. Oleksandr Syrskyi, honored the soldiers who fought in Kursk region with military awards. \u201cOur independence is in our blood,\u201d he posted on Telegram on Saturday. \u201cIn the blood that flows in our veins, in the blood that our heroes shed for their native land\u201d.
\nEven as Ukraine presses its offensive into Russia, however, it is also evacuating residents from Pokrovsk in eastern Ukraine, as Russian forces are now 10 kilometers (6 miles) from the strategic city.
\nResidents of Pokrovsk, once a city of 60,000, on Friday registered for evacuation at a central school and then, carrying bundles of belongings, boarded trains to take them to areas further from the conflict.
\nIhor Kysil, a 52-year-old soldier from the 110th Brigade, was wounded for the second time about a month ago while fighting in the Pokrovsk area. On Friday, still recovering from a concussion and a fractured shoulder, and dealing with hearing problems from an earlier injury, he stood in Kyiv\u2019s Independence Square, holding hands with his wife.
\n\u201cThis day is about our freedom,\u201d he said, as he stood near the makeshift memorial for fallen soldiers, where thousands of flags fluttered in honor of those who have been lost. Among them were flags for comrades Kysil knew and served alongside.
\n\u201cEvery life is priceless,\u201d his wife, Yuliia Fedenko, added. \u201cWe value every minute of the time we have.\u201d
\n\u201cThese are the golden days,\u201d Kysil said, knowing that once his rehabilitation is complete, he will return to the front line. (AP)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
KYIV, 24 Aug: A somber atmosphere pervaded Ukraine\u2019s 33rd Independence Day on Saturday, as the nation\u2019s fight to repel Russia\u2019s full-scale invasion reached a 30-month milestone. No fireworks, parades or concerts were planned and instead Ukrainians marked the day with commemorations for civilians and soldiers killed in the war. Ukrainians flooded social media with messages […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-247105","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-world"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247105","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=247105"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247105\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=247105"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=247105"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=247105"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}