Temperatures in Ukraine are frigid this time of year with lows in the teens and highs that hover near the freezing mark. With the Russian war of aggression also happening within Ukraine borders, there’s also the loss of power, loss of heating and potential bombardment of Russian missiles.
Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky on the fourth day of winter addressed his nation Sunday night, just like he does every evening, to talk about the hardships of war plus winter.
“The enemy [Russia] really hopes to use winter against us: to make winter cold and hardship part of his terror,” Zelensky said in his address. “We have to do everything to endure this winter, no matter how hard it is. And we will endure. To endure this winter is to defend everything.”
Photo by Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images
Zelensky said Russia still has a sizeable advantage when it comes to resources like missiles, artillery and other equipment of war. But the Ukraine president said his country has something Russian forces don’t have, and that’s a love for Ukraine.
“We defend our home, and that gives us the strongest motivation possible. We fight for freedom, and that always multiplies any force. We defend the truth, and this unites the whole world around Ukraine,” Zelensky said.
It’s been close to a year since Russia began positioning troops along Ukraine’s northern and western borders in late January while it also conducted military with neighboring Belarus. Russia attacked Ukraine on February 24 this year and there have been heavy casualties on both sides.
Russia has lost more than 91,000 soldiers during the war, according to estimates from Ukraine’s ministry of defense.
Since the war began, Russia has failed to overtake Kyiv, Lviv and Odesa, but they occupied many regions in the eastern portion of Ukraine. Russia has occupied most of the Donbas Oblast, which includes Luhansk, Severodonetsk, Donetsk and Mariupol. They occupied the Crimea peninsula in 2014.
The winter months in Ukraine began December 1, and the 90-day hiatus will be a testament to the country’s moxie, Zelensky said.
“To get through this winter, we have to help each other more than ever and care for each other even more,” Zelensky said Sunday night. “And please don’t ask if you can help, and how. Just help when you see you can.
“To get through the winter, we have to be even more resilient and even more united than ever. There can be no internal conflicts and strife, which can weaken us all, even if someone out there thinks that somehow it will strengthen him personally. We need more interaction than ever. All of Ukraine has to become one big Point of Invincibility and work every day, work every night. The state, business, people – all of us, Ukrainians, all together.”
The war is now in its 284th day and 10th month.
