By Pavel Polityuk
KYIV, Feb 24 (Reuters) – President Volodymyr Zelenskiy urged Ukraine’s allies on Tuesday to sustain their support for its four-year-old battle against Russian invasion, as divisions among its European partners overshadowed commemorations of the start of the conflict.
European Union nations had hoped to agree a fresh package of sanctions against Russia as well as a 90 billion euro loan for Ukraine but Hungary, which maintains close ties with Moscow, had on Monday kept up its veto on both.
Hungary and neighbouring Slovakia accuse Kyiv of deliberately blocking their supplies of Russian oil via the Druzhba pipeline, which Ukraine says it is trying to repair after a Russian strike last month.
ZELENSKIY SEEKS TO BIND UKRAINE TO EUROPE
In a televised address to the European Parliament to mark the fourth anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion, Zelenskiy urged members of the 27-nation EU to keep defending the European way of life.
Zelenskiy says EU membership would be a guarantee of Ukraine’s future security after a peace deal is signed, and Kyiv will be ready by 2027. The EU is considering ways to give Ukraine at least some benefits of membership before it has introduced all the many economic, democratic and judicial reforms required for full accession.
“Russians must learn that Europe is a union of independent nations and millions of people who do not tolerate humiliation and will not accept violence,” Zelenskiy said.
Dignitaries including European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, Finnish President Alexander Stubb and Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen attended prayers with Zelenskiy in Kyiv’s Saint Sophia cathedral. But, in contrast to previous years, no heads of major Western governments attended the anniversary.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer was due later to lead a call of the Coalition of the Willing group of Kyiv’s allies.
Zelenskiy has repeatedly urged allies above all to tighten sanctions on Russia’s economy and send Kyiv more weaponry, particularly air defence missiles.
Britain sanctioned the oil pipeline giant Transneft among nearly 300 other Russian targets, in what it called its largest package of measures since the early months of the Ukraine war.
But in a televised statement, Zelenskiy criticised nations still buying Russian oil for helping to fund the conflict. “Putin has not achieved his goals. He has not broken the Ukrainian people. He has not won this war,” he said.
He also invited U.S. President Donald Trump: “Only by visiting Ukraine and seeing our lives and struggles with your own eyes, by understanding our people and the enormity of their pain, can you see what this war is really about.”
Hundreds of thousands of soldiers on both sides have died or been wounded in Europe’s bloodiest conflict since World War Two. Russian forces have also killed tens of thousands of Ukrainian civilians and destroyed cities with missile and drone strikes.
Ongoing peace talks, brokered by the United States, appear to have stalled over the question of territory.
In Moscow, where there were no official anniversary ceremonies, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Western intervention meant Russia was now in a much wider confrontation with nations that wanted to crush it.
Peskov said Moscow remained open to achieving its aims through diplomacy, but he was not able to say when more talks would take place.
FRANCE AND POLAND SEND KYIV MESSAGES OF SOLIDARITY
Moscow, which is advancing painfully slowly on the battlefield, insists that Ukraine must cede the final 20% of the eastern region of Donetsk – while Kyiv is adamant it will not relinquish land that thousands have died to defend.
Zelenskiy said Ukraine would not betray the sacrifices made by its people just to bring an end to the conflict. “We cannot, we must not, give it away, forget it, betray it.”
Nearly 6 million people have left Ukraine and more than 3 million are displaced within its borders, accounting for over a fifth of the pre-war population.
Several foreign leaders expressed their support for Ukraine. French President Emmanuel Macron said on X that Russia was paying a high price for small territorial gains: “One day, Russians will grasp the enormity of the crime committed in their name.”
Polish President Karol Nawrocki, also on X, said Russia’s aggression against Ukraine posed a serious threat to the security of Europe and thanked Ukrainians for their courage.
Pounded by Russian strikes, Ukraine’s power grid has struggled through the coldest winter of the war, leaving millions without electricity for hours or days and plunging the economy into its most difficult period since the conflict began.
The mood on the streets of Kyiv was subdued, with a few dozen people gathering at a ceremony in the central square with soldiers carrying flags to hold a moment of silence for the fallen. Several expressed weariness after years of fighting.
“I don’t think it will end quickly, because Russia hates us and will do everything possible to destroy us,” said Svitlana Yur, a 48-year-old local resident.
(Reporting by Pavel Polityuk; Writing by Daniel Flynn; Editing by Andrew Heavens and Kevin Liffey)
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