Volodymyr Zelenskiy warned that any attacks by Russia on the country’s independence day would be met with a powerful response as Ukraine prepared to mark 31 years since the end of Soviet rule.
The Ukrainian president’s defiant message followed warnings from western and Ukrainian officials that Russia was preparing to once again attack the capital, Kyiv, on the date that also marks six months since the 24 February invasion. The US on Tuesday urged all its citizens to leave the country, saying it believed Russia would target civilian and government infrastructure in the next few days.
Kyiv authorities banned mass gatherings in the capital to mark Ukraine’s 1991 independence from the Soviet Union. Instead of the traditional parade down Kyiv’s main street, authorities have lined the road with captured and destroyed Russian military equipment.
The car-bomb killing of the daughter of a prominent ultra-nationalist Russian ideologue at the weekend, which Russia has blamed on Ukraine, has also added to fears of reprisals. Darya Dugina’s funeral was held in Moscow on Tuesday, at which her father, Alexander Dugin, said that only victory in Ukraine could justify the price that she paid.
Zelenskiy said he had information from Ukraine’s intelligence services and international partners that there was an increased threat, but stressed that the threat from Russia had remained daily and constant since 24 February.
He told a news conference in Kyiv that Ukraine would not agree to any proposal to freeze current frontlines in order to “calm” Moscow, which now controls about 22% of Ukraine, including Crimea.
On Wednesday, the US will announce a fresh security assistance package for Ukraine of about $3bn (£2.5bn), officials said, to coincide with Ukraine’s independence day and to equip the country for a war of attrition fought primarily in eastern and southern Ukraine.
“If the world shows fatigue with the war in Ukraine, it will be a big threat to the whole world,” Zelenskiy told an online conference on Crimea attended by representatives of 60 states.
He also vowed to return Crimea to Ukraine, saying that it would become part of the EU, along with the rest of the country. “It all began with Crimea, and it will end with Crimea,” said Zelenskiy.
The outgoing British prime minister, Boris Johnson, who spoke via video link at the conference, said Britain would never recognise Russia’s annexation of Crimea or any other parts of Ukrainian territory.
“In the face of Putin’s assault we must continue to give our Ukrainian friends all the military, humanitarian, economic and diplomatic support that they need until Russia ends this hideous war and withdraws its forces from the entirety of Ukraine,” Johnson said.
The president of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, also spoke at the conference, saying that Crimea should be returned to Ukraine. Erdoğan, who helped negotiate the recent grain deal, has been maintaining ties with Zelenskiy and Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin