Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy welcomed Western leaders to Kyiv on February 24 to mark the second anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion, as Ukrainian forces run low on ammunition and weaponry and foreign aid hangs in the balance.
Mr. Zelensky posted a video from the Hostomel airfield together with Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni, Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, as well as the European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.
“Two years ago, here, we met enemy landing forces with fire; two years later, we meet our friends and our partners here,” Mr. Zelensky said at the airport just outside of Kyiv, which Russian paratroopers unsuccessfully tried to seize in the first days of the war.
The Western leaders arrived shortly after a Russian drone attack struck a residential building in the southern city of Odesa, killing at least one person. Three women also sustained severe burns in the attack on Friday evening, regional Governor Oleh Kiper wrote on his social media account. Rescue services combed through the rubble looking for survivors.
Italy, which holds the rotating presidency of the Group of Seven leading economies, announced that the G-7 will meet virtually on February 24 with Mr. Zelensky and would adopt a joint statement on Ukraine.
In Pictures | A look back at the two years of Russia – Ukraine war
Russian armored vehicles are loaded onto railway platforms at a railway station in region not far from Russia-Ukraine border, in the Rostov-on-Don region, Russia, Wednesday, Feb. 23, 2022. U.S. President Joe Biden announced the U.S. was ordering heavy financial sanctions against Russia, declaring that Moscow had flagrantly violated international law in what he called the “beginning of a Russian invasion of Ukraine.”
Chinese and Indian representatives voting to abstain from a resolution raise their hands during a U.N. Security Council meeting on the Russian invasion of the Ukraine on Feb. 25, 2022 at U.N. headquarters. Russia vetoed a Security Council resolution demanding that Moscow stop its attack on Ukraine and withdraw all troops.
In this photo provided by the Ukrainian Presidential Press Office, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy speaks to the nation via his smartphone in the center of Kyiv, Ukraine on Feb. 26, 2022. Russian troops stormed toward Ukraine‚Äôs capital and street fighting broke out as city officials urged residents to take shelter. The country’s president refused an American offer to evacuate, insisting that he would stay.
Smoke rising after shelling on the outskirts of the city is pictured from Kyiv, Ukraine February 27, 2022.
FILE – Smoke rise from an air defense base in the aftermath of an apparent Russian strike in Mariupol, Ukraine, on Feb. 24, 2022. Ukraine is marking Saturday, Feb. 24, 2024, two years since Russia’s full-scale invasion, with a string of foreign dignitaries and officials expected to visit the capital, Kyiv, in solidarity as Ukrainian forces run low on ammunition and weaponry and Western aid hangs in the balance. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka, File)
A general view of a residential building damaged by a Russian missile strike, as Russia’s attack on Ukraine continues, in the village of Serhiivka, Odesa region, Ukraine July 1, 2022.
Russian President Vladimir Putin watches the Vostok 2022 (East 2022) military exercise in far eastern Russia, outside Vladivostok, on Tuesday, Sept. 6, 2022. The weeklong exercise that began Thursday is intended to showcase growing defense ties between Russia and China and also demonstrate that Moscow has enough troops and equipment to conduct the massive drills even as its troops are engaged in military action in Ukraine.
Bodies are seen next to cars from a civilian convoy, which Ukrainian State Security Service say was hit by a shelling from Russian troops amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, near the village of Kurylivka in Kharkiv region, Ukraine on October 21, 2022.
Victor Syabro, 68, cuts a plank of wood into smaller pieces for firewood on his land where he and his wife Ludmila, 61, continue to live despite the fact that their home was mostly destroyed by shelling in the summer and their garden was hit as recently as last week as the town continues to receive shelling on a daily basis in Siversk, Ukraine, November 28, 2022. Despite no power, water or services and daily shelling, Victor says they will not leave because it’s their land, where Victor was raised and where five generations have lived.
A family reunites for the first time since Russian troops withdrew from the Kherson region, in Tsentralne, southern Ukraine, Nov. 13, 2022.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy attend a news conference during “The inaugural International Summit of the initiative Grain from Ukraine” in Kyiv, Ukraine, Saturday, Nov. 26, 2022.
Ukrainian servicemen fire a 120mm mortar towards Russian positions at the frontline near Bakhmut, Donetsk region, Ukraine, Wednesday, Jan. 11, 2023.
U.S. President Joe Biden and Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy meet, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, in Kyiv, Ukraine February 20, 2023.
A firefighter works inside the burnt-out building of the University of Economics and Trade, which was reportedly hit by shelling in the course of Russia-Ukraine conflict in Donetsk, Russian-controlled Ukraine, August 6, 2023.
An employee operates at a production facility of Zaporizhstal Iron and Steel Works, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine October 9, 2023.
A Ukrainian serviceman shouts to paramedics in front of bodies killed after a Russian rocket attack on the food market in the city centrer of Kostiantynivka, Ukraine on Sept. 6, 2023.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen attend a press conference in Kyiv, Ukraine, Saturday, Nov. 4, 2023. Ukraine, Moldova and Georgia received positive news on Wednesday, Nov. 8, 2023, about their quests to join the European Union but countries in the volatile Balkans region that have waited years longer to become members of the world’s biggest trading bloc appeared to slip back in the queue.
An explosion erupts from an apartment building at 110 Mytropolytska St., after a Russian army tank fired on it in Mariupol, Ukraine, Friday, March 11, 2022.
Ukrainian infantrymen train with French soldiers to learn combat skills, in France, Tuesday, Nov. 7, 2023. With the full-scale war grinding into a second winter, and casualties already counted in the hundreds of thousands continuing to mount on both sides, the training has become crucially important for Ukraine’s chances of victory.
Smoke rises over a residential building after a Russian missile and drone strike, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, in Kyiv, Ukraine December 29, 2023.
The United Nations Security Council meets on maintenance of peace and security of Ukraine, Friday, Feb. 23, 2024 at United Nations headquarters.
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“More than ever we stand firmly by Ukraine. Financially, economically, militarily, morally. Until the country is finally free,” Ms. von der Leyen said in a post on X, formerly Twitter.
On the front line in the eastern Donetsk region, Ukrainian soldiers pleaded for ammunition.
“When the enemy comes in, a lot of our guys die. … We are sitting here with nothing,” said Volodymyr, 27, a senior officer in an artillery battery.
“In order to protect our infantry … we need a high number of shells, which we do not have now,” said Oleksandr, 45, a commander of an artillery unit. The two officers only gave their first names, citing security concerns.
In a message on the war’s second anniversary, Col. Gen. Oleksandr Syrskyi, the commander-in-chief of Ukraine’s armed forces, thanked Ukrainian soldiers for their sacrifices and Western allies for their support, saying, “Every projectile, every tank, every armoured vehicle is, first of all, saving the life of a Ukrainian soldier.”
Earlier this month, Mr. Zelensky fired top military commander Valerii Zaluzhnyi and replaced him with Syrskyi, marking the most significant shakeup of top brass since the full-scale invasion.
Authorities also pointed to successes, including the downing of a Russian early warning and control aircraft on February 23.
If confirmed, it would mark the loss of the second such aircraft in just over a month. The Ukrainian military says Russia uses the aircraft to direct missile attacks.
The war has also come to Russia. Drones hit a steel plant in the Lipetsk region in southern Russia on February 24, causing a large fire, regional Governor Igor Artamonov said, adding there are no casualties. Independent Russian media said the Novolipetsk Metallurgical Plant is the largest steel plant in Russia. Videos shared on Russian social media showed several fires burning at the plant, and an explosion could be heard.
Independent Russian news outlet Mediazona said on February 24 that around 75,000 Russian men died in 2022 and 2023 fighting in the war.
A joint investigation published by Mediazona and Meduza, another independent Russian news site, indicates that the rate of Russia’s losses in Ukraine is not slowing and that Moscow is losing around 120 men a day. Based on a statistical analysis of the recorded deaths of soldiers compared with a Russian inheritance database, the journalists said around 83,000 soldiers are likely to have died in the two years of fighting.
According to Mediazona and Meduza‘s analysis, regular Russian troops sustained the heaviest losses in the first months of the war. But, after prisoners were offered their freedom in exchange for fighting and after President Vladimir Putin ordered a partial mobilization, those groups started to sustain more casualties, particularly in the early months of 2023.
A somber mood hangs over Ukraine as the war against Russia enters its third year and Kyiv’s troops face mounting challenges on the front line amid dwindling ammunition supplies and personnel challenges. Its troops recently withdrew from the strategic eastern city of Avdiivka, handing Moscow one of its biggest victories.
Russia still controls roughly a quarter of the country after Ukraine failed to make any major breakthroughs with its summertime counteroffensive. Meanwhile, millions of Ukrainians continue to live in precarious circumstances in the crossfire of battles, and many others face constant struggles under Russian occupation. Most are waiting for a Ukrainian liberation that hasn’t come.
Olena Zelenska, the President’s wife, said on February 24 that more than 2 million Ukrainian children have left the country since the war began and that at least 528 have been killed. “The war started by Russia deliberately targets children,” she said.
Britain has pledged an additional 8.5 million pounds ($10.8 million) of humanitarian aid to Ukraine, bolstering efforts to provide medical care, food and basic services to residents as the nation marks the second anniversary of Russia’s invasion.
About 14.6 million people, or 40% of Ukraine’s population, need assistance, with many left homeless or without adequate access to food, water and electricity, Britain’s Foreign Office said in announcing the aid.
In the U.S. Congress, Republicans have stalled $60 billion in military aid for Kyiv, desperately needed in the short term. The EU recently approved a 50 billion-euro (about $54 billion) aid package for Ukraine meant to support Ukraine’s economy, despite resistance from Hungary.
President Joe Biden tied the loss of the defensive stronghold of Avdiivka in the Donetsk region after months of gruelling battles to the stalled U.S. aid. Fears have since spiked that Ukrainian forces will face similar difficulties across other parts of the 1,000-km front line as they come under mounting pressure from Russian assaults.
Despite a heavy crackdown on dissent, some Russians marked the anniversary by laying flowers at Moscow monuments or holding anti-war signs in the streets.
According to OVD-Info, a Russian rights group that tracks political arrests and provides legal aid, at least five people were arrested in Moscow on February 24 while holding signs saying “No to war” or attending a weekly demonstration calling for the return of mobilized Russian soldiers from Ukraine.
Police also detained a young woman who brought flowers in Ukraine’s national colours, blue and yellow, to a Moscow monument to victims of political repression, OVD-Info reported.
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