Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky warned of “particularly ugly” attacks from Russian forces to coincide with Ukraine’s Independence Day, which is why officials have canceled celebrations.
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The capital, Kyiv, and the second-largest city, Kharkiv, have banned events amid the threat of “something particularly vicious,” Zelensky said on Saturday.
“One of the key tasks of the enemy is to humiliate us, Ukrainians, to devalue our capabilities, our heroes, to spread despair, fear, to spread conflicts … Therefore, it is important never, for a single moment, to give in to this enemy pressure, not to wind oneself up, not to show weakness,” he said.
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Gen. Mykola Zhyrnov, head of Kyiv’s military administration, explained that the order was meant to ensure that forces could respond in a “timely manner to threats of missile and bomb attacks by the troops of the Russian Federation on decision-making centers, military facilities, defense industry facilities, critical infrastructure and nearby residential areas,” according to CNN.
Wednesday’s Independence Day coincides nearly exactly with the six-month anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24. While it expected to topple the government and install its own puppet regime within days or weeks, it is no closer to accomplishing its initial goals than it was at the start of the invasion.
Natalia Humeniuk, a spokeswoman for Ukraine’s southern military command, said Sunday that “the date of our independence and the anniversary of the invasion, half a year, coincide — it is the 24th. And there’s Ukrainian flag day, on the 23rd. We are ready for the fact that there will be an increase in some kind of aggression, there will be an increase in missile attacks.”
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With billions of dollars of military assistance from the U.S. and other NATO countries, the Ukrainians have for the most part been able to stall Russian advances giving up small amounts of territory. The U.S.’s most recent aid package, which the Pentagon announced on Friday, was for $775 million, and it brought the total donated since Russia’s invasion to more than $10 billion since the Biden administration began.
“I would say that you are seeing a complete and total lack of progress by the Russians on the battlefield,” a senior defense official told reporters on Friday. “In that sense, we are at a different phase than where we were even a couple of months ago.”
