A thousand candles were lit in Kiev on Tuesday, reminding the world that exactly one thousand days have passed since the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Diplomats of European Union countries, including Poland, paid tribute to the victims of the war unleashed by the Kremlin.
– Ukraine wants to show the world on this day that it is united, that it remembers all those who gave their lives in the fight for our identity. He remembers every town and village that is either occupied or completely wiped out. This is all the history of one nation and one state, said historian and publicist Roman Kabaczij.
1000 candles on the 1000th day of the Russian invasion (Kyiv, 19/11/2024)SERGEY DOLZHENKO/EPA
Candles were lit in front of the Mother of the Fatherland Monument, a 102-meter-high monument erected in Soviet times. It depicts a woman with a sword and shield looking east. Last year, the Soviet coat of arms on the shield was replaced with a Ukrainian tryzub.
The monument is part of the National Museum of World War II, which organized the commemoration.
Monument of the Mother of the Fatherland in KievPAP/Vladyslav Musiienko
“To win, we must be united”
Minister of Culture Mykola Toczycki, who was present at the ceremony, said that Ukrainians have been showing “heroism, steadfastness and sacrifice” for 1,000 days. – We are fighting for freedom. So that Crimea, Donetsk, Luhansk are together with the Carpathians and Kiev. And to win, we must be united, he appealed.
The head of the Polish embassy in Kiev, Piotr Łukasiewicz, assessed that after 1,000 days of full-scale war Russia she did not understand what crime she had committed and underestimated the strength of Ukraine. “A thousand days of war and Russia still has not understood the scope of its crime and the strength of Ukraine's intransigence on the road to the EU and NATO,” he wrote on the X platform.
Łukasiewicz and other diplomats of EU countries laid flowers on Tuesday at the wall commemorating the victims of Russian aggression at the Mikhailovsky Cathedral.
It contains photos of those who have been dying in eastern Ukraine since 2014, when Russia behind the back of the so-called separatists entered Ukrainian Donbass. 1000 days ago, the Kremlin openly sent a regular army to Ukraine, which has been devastating the occupied territories ever since.
1000 candles on the 1000th day of the Russian invasion (Kyiv, 19/11/2024)SERGEY DOLZHENKO/EPA
– The same ruin would await Europe if it were a Russian dictator Vladimir Putin allowed to reach the EU borders, Kabachiy said.
– Ukraine is not alone in its fight, because it is part of Europe and will not disappear from Europe anywhere. If Putin approaches the borders of the European Union, it will still be the same as today in Donbas: destruction. The destruction of European civilization – he warned.
Lighting of 1,000 candles on the 1,000th day of Russia's full-scale aggression against Ukraine in the square in front of the Motherland Monument in Kiev,PAP/Vladyslav Musiienko
Main photo source: SERGEY DOLZHENKO/EPA