LEADERS UNITE TO MARK ANNIVERSARY
PRESIDENT Volodymyr Zelenskyy has welcomed western leaders to Kyiv to mark the second anniversary of Russia’s invasion, as Ukrainian forces run low on ammunition and weaponry and foreign aid hangs in the balance.
He posted a video yesterday from Hostomel airfield with Italian premier Giorgia Meloni, Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, as well as European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen.
“Two years ago, here, we met enemy landing forces with fire; two years later, we meet our friends and our partners here,” Mr Zelenskyy said at the airport just outside Kyiv, which Russian paratroopers unsuccessfully tried to seize in the first days of the war.
They arrived shortly after a Russian drone attack struck a residential building in the southern city of Odesa, killing at least one person.
Three women also sustained severe burns in the attack on Friday evening on a residential building, regional governor Oleh Kiper said on his social media account. Rescue services are still combing rubble looking for survivors.
The foreign leaders are in Ukraine to express solidarity.
“More than ever we stand firmly by Ukraine. Financially, economically, militarily, morally. Until the country is finally free,” Ms von der Leyen wrote on social media after she arrived in Kyiv.
But on the front line in the Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine, Ukrainian soldiers pleaded for ammunition.
“When the enemy comes in, a lot of our guys die. We are sitting here with nothing, said Volodymyr, 27, a senior officer in an artillery battery.
“In order to protect our infantry... we need a high number of shells, which we do not have now,” said Oleksandr, 45, the commander of an artillery unit.
Meanwhile, hundreds of people marched through central London yesterday in support of Ukraine.
The commemorations began with an interfaith prayer service at London’s Ukrainian Catholic Cathedral where Bishop Kenneth Nowakowski said Ukrainians “do not want to give up hope”.
In Scotland, political and religious leaders attended a service at Edinburgh Castle.
First Minister Humza Yousaf delivered a reading and laid a wreath at the Scottish National War Memorial alongside Andrii Kuslii, of the consulate of Ukraine.
The service was attended by Ukrainian citizens living in Scotland and was followed by a rally in Edinburgh against Russian aggression.