People visit the graves of their relatives, who were killed during Russia's attack on Ukraine, as a large-scale light installation illuminates the Lychakiv cemetery in Lviv, Ukraine, on Feb. 23, 2026, marking the fourth anniversary of the full-scale Russian invasion. (Roman Baluk/Reuters)

 

"Looking back at the beginning of the invasion and reflecting on today, we have every right to say:We have defended our independence, we have not lost our statehood."

"[Russian President Vladimir Putin has] not achieved his goals."

"He has not broken Ukrainians; he has not won this war."

"I believe that stopping Putin today and preventing him from occupying Ukraine is a victory for the whole world. Because Putin will not stop at Ukraine."

"We'll do it [get our land back]. That is absolutely clear. It is only a matter of time. To do it today would mean losing a huge number of people - millions of people - because the [Russian] army is large, and we understand the cost of such steps. You would not have enough people, you would be losing them. And what is land without people? Honestly, nothing."

"And we also don't have enough weapons. That depends not just on us, but on our partners. So as of now that's not possible but returning to the just borders of 1991 [the year Ukraine declared its independence, precipitating the final collapse of the Soviet Union] without a doubt, is not only a victory, it's justice. Ukraine's victory is the preservation of our independence, and a victory of justice for the whole world is the return of all our lands."

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy 

In this photo provided by the Ukrainian Presidential Press Office, European leaders attending the ceremony at the memorial to the fallen Ukrainian soldiers on Independence Square in Kyiv, Ukraine, Monday, Feb. 24, 2025. (Ukrainian Presidential Press Office via AP)

 

Over a dozen senior European officials arrived in Kyiv to help Ukraine mark the anniversary of the conflict imposed upon the country by Moscow. A conflict which has killed tens of thousands, a conflict that has disrupted life for millions of Ukrainians, both the internally displaced forced to find haven elsewhere within Ukraine and the millions more made refugees by the exigencies of war. Four years of conflict where a rabid aggressor has been held back by stout defence that morphed into a counter-offensive keeping the barbarians at bay.

 

Eastern European countries well know that if Ukraine falls, Putin's territory-hungry eye will look further into Russia's near-abroad, and they are on the menu. As it is, beyond well-placed concerns over the scale of Putin's territorial ambitions, the conflict has created instability in Russia's near-abroad target countries, feverishly supplying Ukraine with funding and war materiel, while at the same time modernizing their own conflict-imposed defence resources and strengthening ties with their neighbours.

 

Russia, after initiating its 'special military operation'  managed to gain close to 20 percent of Ukrainian territory which Moscow has declared part of greater Russia, according to the Institute for the Study of War, while the past year of fighting has gained Russia a mere 0.79 percent of additional territory. Rather putting Putin's aims off kilter in his initial confident expectation that this would be a time-limited enterprise, tucking Ukraine back into Russia's pocket in a mere matter of weeks. 

 

Russia's aerial bombardments over the years have targeted Ukraine's cities throughout the country while Moscow keeps insisting it targets only military installations. Ukrainian civilians have been denied power and water time and again as basic civic infrastructure, including hospitals shopping centres and apartment blocks, become deliberate targets time and again in Moscow's efforts to demoralize Ukrainians. 

 

A woman places flowers at the memorial to fallen Ukrainian soldiers in Independence Square to mark the fourth anniversary of Russia's full-scale invasion in Kyiv, Ukraine, on Tuesday. (Efrem Lukatsky/The Associated Press)

 

For its part, turning defence into offence, Ukraine has increasingly deployed long-range drones of its own technical design and increasingly more sophisticated and effective manufacture to strike Russian oil refineries, ports, bridges, ships, fuel depots and military logistics hubs well within Russia; over 1,000 kilometres beyond the border, reaching as far as Moscow. Negotiations led by the Trump White House have  yielded no relief as the war of attrition stretches toward its fifth year of combat.

 

Russia's demands of Ukraine feature the Donbas, the industrial heartland of eastern Ukraine mostly occupied by Russian Forces, while Ukraine continues to hold possession of a portion. For Russia to draw back its forces it demands that Ukraine comply with its demand to withdraw from the Donbas allowing 

Russia to annex it entirely as it did with the Crimean Peninsula in 2014. Ukraine must also surrender its weapons and reduce its armed forces, and never again attempt to join NATO; the conditions that Moscow seeks to impose.

 

Thousands of flags and portraits of the fallen in this war appeared at a memorial in Kyiv's central square. The Kremlin celebrated the fourth-year anniversary of its invasion when Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov stated that Moscow's resolute plans include the continuation of the invasion until Moscow's goals are accomplished; until Ukraine cedes vast areas of territory to Russia.