KYIV, Ukraine (AFP) —Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Wednesday vowed in an Independence Day address that his country would fight Russia’s invasion “until the end” and would not be making “any concession or compromise.”
“We don’t care what army you have, we only care about our land. We will fight for it until the end,” Zelensky said in a video address on Wednesday, which also marks six months since the invasion began.
Meanwhile, the United States will announce $3 billion in fresh military aid to Kyiv on Wednesday as Ukraine also marks the six-month anniversary of the Russian invasion.
A US official confirmed the planned White House announcement even as Washington warned that Moscow could be planning a surge in strikes on major civilian targets coinciding with the independence day observations, and as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky urged citizens to be on guard against “Russian terror.”
The new tranche of American funding will help Kyiv acquire more weaponry, ammunition and other supplies for its armed forces, locked in a grinding war of attrition with Russian troops in the east and south with neither side advancing significantly in weeks.
Kyiv’s city administration said it would close public service centers on Wednesday and Thursday, and shopping malls here said they would close for the anniversary for safety concerns.
“Tomorrow is an important day for all of us. And that is why this day, unfortunately, is also important for our enemy,” Zelensky said in an address Tuesday evening.
“We must be aware that tomorrow disgusting Russian provocations and brutal strikes are possible,” he said.
In Moscow, the Kremlin warned it would show “no mercy” over the assassination of Daria Dugina, the daughter of an ultranationalist intellectual allied with President Vladimir Putin, which it blamed on Ukraine.
Kyiv has denied responsibility for the Saturday bombing, which apparently targeted Dugina’s father Alexander Dugin.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the investigation into the attack would be completed soon.
“According to the results of this investigation, there can be no mercy for those who organized, ordered and carried out” the car bombing, he said.