Zelenskyy says Ukraine unbroken after 4 years, but Russia vows to fight on

Vladimir Putin has not broken Ukraine, its leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Tuesday (February 24, 2026), as the Kremlin marked the start of the fifth year of its invasion by vowing to keep fighting Europe’s bloodiest conflict since World War II until it achieves its goals.

Moscow had hoped to take Kyiv in days when it launched its invasion on February 24, 2022.

Four years later — with hundreds of thousands dead, millions forced to flee, much of eastern Ukraine destroyed, and U.S.-led peace talks still deadlocked over territory — it conceded that it has not achieved all it wants in the country.

“The goals haven’t been fully achieved yet, which is why the military operation continues,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters in response to an AFP question.

Ukraine, meanwhile, was ready to do “everything” it could to secure peace, Mr. Zelenskyy said in a video address that featured images of Ukrainians carrying out acts of resistance against Russian soldiers in the opening days of the conflict.

But any settlement must not “betray” the price paid by Ukrainians throughout the conflict, he said.

“Putin has not achieved his goals. He did not break the Ukrainians. He did not win this war. We have preserved Ukraine, and we will do everything to achieve peace — and to ensure there is justice,” Mr. Zelenskyy said.

“We want peace. Strong, dignified, and lasting peace,” he said, but any deal must be “accepted by Ukrainians”.

“Everything Ukraine has gone through. It must not be surrendered, forgotten, or betrayed,” he added.

Several European leaders, including Finnish President Alexander Stubb and Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson, visited Kyiv on Tuesday (February 24, 2026) to mark the anniversary.

In an address to the EU Parliament and speaking alongside visiting EU chiefs Ursula von der Leyen and Antonio Costa, Mr. Zelenskyy urged Brussels to accelerate Kyiv’s admission to the bloc, or face “decades” of Russian attempts to disrupt the process.

Speaking in Moscow to agents of his FSB security service, Mr. Putin said Ukraine has “not managed to inflict a strategic defeat on Russia on the battlefield” and was upping its behind-the-lines sabotage attacks.

‘Sirens and shrapnel’

In the suburb of Irpin — where the bodies of hundreds of civilians were discovered in 2022 after it and the neighbouring suburb of Bucha were occupied by Russian forces — locals told AFP how the war had completely changed their lives, and the country.

“We have become accustomed to sleeping under sirens and shrapnel,” said Yevgenia Antoniuk, 43.

Recalling a moment in 2022 when she gave some bread to a hungry old man after the Russians abandoned Irpin, she said: “He burst into tears and began kissing my hands. At that moment, I hated Russians so deeply and strongly that I realised that neither I, nor my children, nor my grandchildren would ever forget or forgive them.”

As in many places across the country, locals there had gathered for a ceremony to mark the four-year anniversary.

Ukrainians are filled with a mix of fatigue at the relentless bombardments and mounting battlefield losses, and determination to resist.

Whatever the outcome on the battlefield or at the negotiating table, “there will be no victory for us in this war,” said Valentyn Oleksiyenko, a 29-year-old wounded veteran.

“The price we are paying for it is too high. Too many of our people have been killed,” he added.

Hundreds of thousands have been killed since Moscow invaded.

The UN has verified around 15,000 Ukrainian civilians killed, but says the true number is likely considerably higher.

Others said the fact Ukraine had not fallen to the Russians was a victory in itself.

“We have shown that no matter who the enemy is that comes to our land, we can repel them,” said Isakiy Zinkevich, a 38-year-old priest in Bucha, a Kyiv commuter town that became synonymous with atrocities committed by Russian troops.

Territory

The United States has been pushing to end the conflict, mediating talks this year in Geneva and Abu Dhabi between the two sides, but they remain at odds over the issue of territory.

Russia, which occupies around 20% of Ukraine, is fighting to gain full control of Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region as part of any deal.

Ukraine has rejected the demand and said it would not sign a deal without security guarantees from allies — including the U.S. — to deter Russia from invading again.

The grinding four-year war has devastated the country, with the cost of post-war reconstruction estimated at around $588 billion over the next decade, according to a joint World Bank, EU and UN report with Kyiv, published on Monday (February 22, 2026).

Published – February 24, 2026 11:19 pm IST