2023-07-08 14:24:58
On the 500th day since the start of the Russian war of aggression against his country, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy emphasized his country’s will to persevere. Ukraine will “never be conquered by the occupiers, because we are the land of the brave,” Zelenskyy said in a video released on Saturday showing him visiting the symbolic Snake Island in the Black Sea.
The undated video, published online on Saturday, shows Zelenskyy arriving by boat on Snake Island in the Black Sea and laying flowers at a memorial site. “From here, from this place of victory, I would like to thank each of our soldiers for these 500 days,” said the Ukrainian president, referring to the duration of the Russian war of aggression.
Snake Island has been a symbol of the Ukrainian resistance since the beginning of the Russian invasion on February 24, 2022. On the first day of the invasion, the crew of the later sunk Russian warship “Moskva” had asked the Ukrainian border guards stationed on the island to surrender.
“F…k you, Russian warship!” A border guard responded in a radio message that made headlines around the world. A short time later, the Russian forces took the island. The Ukrainian soldiers were captured and later released in a prisoner exchange. At the end of June last year, the Ukrainian armed forces recaptured the island.
According to the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine (HRMMU), more than 9,000 civilians have been killed since the war began, including 500 children. The war continues to take a “terrible toll” on the Ukrainian population, said HRMMU deputy chief Noel Calhoun on the occasion of the 500th day of Russia’s war of aggression.
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