Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has warned that Russia could do something “particularly cruel” as Ukraine prepares to celebrate Independence Day on August 24 – a date that also marks six months of Moscow’s invasion.
Metin Aktas | Anadolu Agency | beautiful pictures
Ukraine’s president has warned that Russia could do something “particularly cruel” as Ukraine prepares to celebrate Independence Day on Wednesday – a date that also marks six months of Moscow’s aggression.
In his Saturday nightly speech, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy urged Ukrainians to be strong and keep fighting, as the country prepares to mark its independence from Soviet rule on August 24.
“We should know that this week Russia might try to do something particularly bad, something particularly cruel,” he said.
He said that one of Russia’s main goals is “to devalue our capabilities” and sow despair, fear and conflict.
“So it’s important never, for a moment, to give in to this opponent’s pressure, not to give in to yourself, not to show weakness.”
Ukraine will celebrate its 31st Independence Day on Wednesday – marking six months since Russia’s gratuitous invasion, which Moscow called a “special military operation”.
“An important milestone lies ahead – six months of this full-scale invasion,” Zelenskyy said in his video message, calling it “a war that changed everything for Ukraine, for Europe and the world.”
Follow United Nations Office for Human RightsMore than 5,500 civilians in Ukraine have been killed and nearly 7,700 civilians injured since the war began until August 15.
“Most civilian casualties were recorded as a result of the use of large-scale explosive weapons, including shelling from heavy artillery, multiple rocket launchers, missiles and air strikes,” according to the report. Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. .
Separately, Russian state media accused Ukrainian forces of carrying out an artillery attack on the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in Ukraine, Europe’s largest nuclear power plant. Located southeast of the town of Enerhodar, the nuclear plant was captured by Moscow at the beginning of the war.
Russian state news agency RIA Novosti Ukraine’s armed forces have regularly attacked the Zaporizhzhia facility in recent weeks, posing the risk of a large-scale nuclear disaster.
Both Russia and Ukraine have repeatedly accused each other of shelling the power plant.
NBC News reported that The headquarters of Russia’s Black Sea fleet in Crimea was attacked by drones early Saturday.
Russia’s Black Sea Fleet headquarters is located in Sevatsopol, Crimea, which was annexed by Moscow in 2014.
“A drone flew to the roof,” the Russian-appointed governor of Crimea, Mikhail Razvozhayev, said on Telegram.
NBC News was unable to independently verify the photos and a video posted online showed a plume of smoke rising from the fleet’s headquarters.
