Ukraine leader pledges push for victory on war anniversary

New video footage of Bakhmut shot from the air with a drone for The Associated Press shows how the longest battle of the year-long Russian invasion has turned the city of salt and gypsum mines in eastern Ukraine into a ghost town. (AP Photo)

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukraine’s president pledged to push for victory in 2023 as he and other Ukrainians on Friday marked the somber first anniversary of the Russian invasion that changed their lives.

As dawn broke on a day of commemorations and defiance, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy tweeted that Ukrainians had proven themselves to be “invincible” in what he called “a year of pain, sorrow, faith and the unity.”

“We know that 2023 will be the year of our victory!” the tweet said.

Ukrainians planned memorials, candle vigils and other remembrances for their tens of thousands of dead — a toll growing all the time as fighting rages in eastern Ukraine in particular.

There were concerns that Russia might unleash another barrage of missiles against Ukraine to pile yet more sadness on the day.

New video footage of Bakhmut shot from the air with a drone for The Associated Press shows how the longest battle of the year-long Russian invasion has turned the city of salt and gypsum mines in eastern Ukraine into a ghost town. The footage was shot Feb. 13. (AP Photo)

Mercifully, air raid alarms did not sound overnight in the capital, Kyiv, and the early morning started quietly.

Still, the government recommended that schools move classes online and office employees were asked to work from home.

Tributes to Ukraine’s resilience flowed from overseas. The Eiffel Tower in Paris was among monuments illuminated in Ukraine’s colors — yellow and blue.

Zelenskyy said the Feb. 24, 2022, Russian assault had been a moment when “millions of us made a choice.” Ukrainians chose not the white flag of surrender “but the blue and yellow one. Not fleeing, but facing. Resisting & fighting,” his tweet said.

The Eiffel Tower is illuminated with the colors of Ukraine to mark the one-year anniversary of Russia's invasion of the country, in Paris, Thursday, Jan. 23, 2023. (AP Photo/Christophe Ena)

A year on, casualty figures are horrific on both sides, with Western estimates suggesting hundreds of thousands of killed and wounded.

Economic repercussions have rippled across the globe. Diplomatic repercussions, too. Western nations are supporting Ukraine militarily, financially and politically. But China, India and countries in the global south have proven ambivalent about Western arguments that Ukraine is the front line of a fight for freedom and democracy.