Roughly nine months after the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyj recognized his people’s will to resist. “We are ready to give our all. Ready to fight to the end,” said Zelenskyj in a video message on the occasion of the so-called “Day of Dignity and Freedom”. Ukraine has paid a very high price for freedom and will continue to pay it, said the head of state, referring to the thousands of war victims.
Everyone has seen what the Ukrainians are capable of and what defenders they have, said Zelenskyy. “How we can withstand one of the greatest armies in the world and become one of the best armies in the world.” Hardened fighters would have been joined by musicians, actors, Olympic champions, IT specialists, scientists and business people. Hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians did not board planes but stood in line at draft offices to defend Ukraine.
Zelenskyy also praised the courage of civilians who stopped enemy tanks and armored personnel carriers “with their bare hands” and went to rallies against the Russian occupiers despite gunshots and stun grenades. Doctors operated despite bomb attacks, fields were tilled “under bombs and bullets”.
With the “Day of Dignity and Freedom” Ukraine commemorates the beginning of the bloody Euromaidan protests in 2013/14. The trigger at the time was the decision by pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovych not to sign an association agreement with the EU.
