Zelenskyy: Today marks exactly four years since Putin was taking Kyiv in 3 days
Today, February 24, marks exactly four years since Putin was taking Kyiv in three days, and this speaks volumes about how Ukraine has been fighting all this time, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said.
"Today marks exactly four years since Putin was taking Kyiv in three days. And this actually says a lot about our resistance, about how Ukraine has been fighting all this time. Behind these words are millions of our people. Behind these words is great courage, very hard work, endurance, and a long journey that Ukraine has been overcoming since February 24," Zelenskyy says in an address on the fourth anniversary of the full-scale invasion by Russia.
The President recalls that the first conversations with world leaders at the beginning of the war took place in a small room in the bunker on Bankova.
"I spoke with President Biden here and heard right here: 'Volodymyr, there is a threat, you need to leave Ukraine urgently. We are ready to help with this.' And I replied here that I need weapons, not a ride. And not because we are all so fearless or made of steel," he adds.
According to him, on the first day of the full-scale invasion, all Ukrainians felt both fear and pain, but "on some invisible level, we all knew that we have no other Ukraine."
"It was a choice. A choice made then by millions of Ukrainian men and women. Our people did not raise the white flag; they protected the blue and yellow one. And the occupiers, who thought they would be met here with lines for flowers, saw lines for military enlistment offices. Our people chose resistance," Zelenskyy said.
The head of state notes that soldiers and civilians "together showed lost Russia the only correct road."
"No one knew what tomorrow would bring, but everyone understood: every tomorrow must be earned. Ukraine had to stand; the state had to stand despite everything. And despite everything, our Ukraine had to work," he says.
