Ukraine and Russia have both declared that they will fight until victory as they marked 1,000 days of war.
Kyiv insisted on Tuesday that it will “never submit” in defending against Moscow’s invasion, and warned that the world must offer no appeasement to Russian President Vladimir Putin. The Kremlin made similar statements, and once more engaged in nuclear sabre-rattling.
“Ukraine will never submit to the occupiers, and the Russian military will be punished for violating international law,” a statement issued by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Kyiv declared.
In a statement to the United Nations Security Council, Ukraine’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Andrii Sybiha called 1,000 days “a very big number”.
“On one hand, it proves Ukrainian bravery in the face of brutal Russian aggression. […] On the other hand, this number proves the failure of the international community, including this esteemed council, to stop wars of aggression and atrocities,” he said.
Amid anticipation that the incoming United States administration of Donald Trump could instigate peace talks with Putin next year, Yevheniia Filipenko, Ukraine’s ambassador to the UN in Geneva, warned in an interview with the Reuters news agency that “Putin doesn’t want peace”.
“He sees these attempts [to start talks] as a weakness. And what we need now is not weakness and appeasement. We need strength,” she said.
Meanwhile, Putin on Tuesday approved an update of Russia’s nuclear doctrine. The document lays out that Russia could consider using nuclear weapons if it was subject to a conventional missile assault on it supported by a nuclear power.
The change is the Kremlin’s answer to reports that US President Joe Biden has decided to allow Ukraine to use long-range missiles provided by Washington to strike deep into Russia.
Putin’s spokesman later told journalists that Moscow is confident of victory in what it labels the “special military operation” that it launched in February 2022 with a full-scale invasion of its neighbour.
“The military operation against Kyiv continues … and will be completed,” Dmitry Peskov told reporters.
Sumy attack
As the grim anniversary passed, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy reported that seven people, including a child, had been killed by an overnight drone attack on the northeastern region of Sumy which borders Russia’s Kursk region.
The strike, which hit a residential building in the small town of Hlukhiv, also left 12 people injured, the military administration of Sumy said on Telegram.
“Every new Russian strike only confirms Putin’s true intentions. He wants the war to continue, he is not interested in talking about peace,” Zelenskyy said.
On Monday, the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) said it had found traces of tear gas in samples taken last month on the front line in Ukraine’s Dnipropetrovsk region.
The use of riot control agents such as tear gas as a method of warfare is banned under the Chemical Weapons Convention, the non-proliferation treaty overseen by OPCW.
The UN body did not assign blame. Ukraine’s foreign ministry on Tuesday blamed Russia and urged action from its partners.