European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen vowed on Saturday that the European Union will continue to support Kiev, marking the 500th day since the start of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which began on February 24, 2022.
“Five hundred days of Russia’s aggressive war against Ukraine. Five hundred days of courageous Ukrainian resistance. Five hundred days of strong European support for Ukraine. We will be with Ukraine as long as it takes,” von der Leyen tweeted.
In total, since the start of the war, aid from the European Union (EU) to Ukraine, a candidate country for accession to the European bloc, amounts to more than 70,000 million euros, including financial, humanitarian, emergency budgetary and military.
Member States and European financial institutions contributed these funds, which also support resources made available to help Member States meet the needs of Ukrainians fleeing war.
Moldovan President Maia Sandu also thanked the Ukrainian soldiers and people in a statement today for resisting Russian aggression for 500 days and thus bringing peace to her country, neighboring Ukraine.
“Thanks to the courage of the Ukrainian army, thanks to the resistance of the civilian population, we have peace in Moldova,” he said.
Moldova is also a candidate for EU membership and has been under constant threats and destabilizing actions from Moscow.
Sandu said his country, as part of the international community, “will join forces with Ukraine to hold Russia to account for its war crimes.”
He also stressed that “Ukraine will win” the war, because “it cannot be otherwise.”
“Ukrainians are a people of peace and we are with them,” Sandu said, assuring that Ukrainians are and will be welcome in Moldova – which hosted hundreds of thousands of refugees at the start of the Russian invasion – and that roads and railways in his country will continue to carry products from Ukraine to other markets.
The Ukrainian president marked 500 days of war today by saluting the country’s soldiers in a video from an island in the Black Sea that has become a symbol of Ukraine’s resistance to Russian invasion.
Speaking on Snake Island, Volodymyr Zelensky honored the Ukrainian soldiers who fought to defend the island and all other defenders of the country, saying that retaking control of the island is “great proof that Ukraine will get back every part of its territory.” .
“I want to thank, from here, from this place of victory, each one of our soldiers for these 500 days,” Zelenskyy said. “Thank you to all who are fighting for Ukraine,” he added.
Russian forces seized control of the small rocky island on February 24, 2022, the day Moscow launched its invasion of Ukraine, apparently hoping to use it as a base for an assault on Odessa in the south, the country’s largest port. of Ukraine and the headquarters of the Navy. .
The island gained legendary significance for the Ukrainian resistance to the Russian invasion when Ukrainian troops received, but ignored, orders from a Russian ship to surrender, risking shelling.
The Russian military offensive on Ukrainian territory plunged Europe into what is considered the most serious security crisis since World War II (1939-1945).
Source: TSF
