Ukraine said Tuesday that its forces would never surrender to Russia, 1,000 days after Moscow launched its brutal invasion, while the Kremlin also pledged victory and escalated its nuclear sabre-rattling.
The grim anniversary opened with an overnight Russian strike in the eastern Ukrainian region of Sumy that gutted a Soviet-era resident building and killed at least nine people, including a child.
President Volodymyr Zelensky published images of rescue workers hauling bodies from the debris and called on Kyiv’s allies to “force” the Kremlin into peace.
The foreign ministry echoed Zelensky’s comments in a statement marking the anniversary by calling on allies to ramp up their military support to bring about a “sustainable” end to the war.
“Ukraine will never submit to the occupiers, and the Russian military will be punished for violating international law,” the ministry said.
“We need peace through strength, not appeasement,” the ministry added, referring to growing calls for Ukraine to sit down at the negotiating table with Russia to end the war.
The Kremlin also vowed to defeat Ukraine.
“The military operation against Kyiv continues … and will be completed,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters, using Russia’s preferred language for its invasion.
The comments came as Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree broadening the scope for when Moscow will consider using nuclear weapons in a clear warning to the West and Ukraine.
– Deadly dorm strike –
The Kremlin says the move, which enables Russia to use nuclear weapons against a non-nuclear state if they are supported by nuclear powers, was “necessary to bring our principles in line with the current situation.”
It comes just after the United States gave Kyiv permission to use long-range missiles to strike military targets inside Russia.
The EU’s outgoing top diplomat Josep Borrell pressed member states Tuesday to align with Washington in allowing Kyiv to strike inside Russia using donated long-range missiles.
A Russian attack in Sumy hit a dormitory in the town of Glukhiv, which had a pre-war population around 30,000 people and lies just 10 kilometres (six miles) from the Kursk region in Russia, where Ukrainian troops captured swathes of territory after launching a major ground offensive in August.
The drone attack killed nine people including a child, the emergency services said, adding that four people were likely under the rubble.
In total, Kyiv said that Russia had launched 87 drones over Ukraine during the night, and that 51 were shot down.
The strike on Sumy comes just days after another Russian aerial bombardment in the border region killed 12 people and wounded 84.
– ‘Chronic’ Russian violations –
A separate missile strike on Monday on the UNESCO-protected city of Odesa in southern Ukraine left 10 dead and 55 wounded.
Ukrainian forces have steadily been losing ground in the Kursk region and have warned that Russia has amassed a force of some 50,000 troops, including North Korean forces, to wrest back the region.
The anniversary of Russia’s invasion — launched on February 24, 2022 — comes at a perilous time for Ukrainian forces across the front, particularly near the war-battered cities of Kupiansk and Pokrovsk.
Ukraine has accused Russian forces of deploying banned chemical substances to advance and on Tuesday urged its allies respond to a report by the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) watchdog that said it had found banned riot control gas in Ukrainian soil samples from the front line.
“Russia’s use of banned chemicals on the battlefield once again demonstrates Russia’s chronic disregard for international law,” the foreign ministry said.
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