KYIV: It has been exactly four years since Russia launched its large-scale invasion of Ukraine, attacking the country from multiple directions. On Feb. 24, 2022, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a “special operation," a campaign that many expected to be brief and to end with Kyiv's capitulation.
Instead, European officials are travelling to the Ukrainian capital on Tuesday to show their support for President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and the Ukrainian people, who are fighting on.
While Putin did not get the quick and overwhelming victory he had hoped for, the cost has been high on both sides. And as Europe's biggest conflict enters its fifth year, there is no sign of any peace deal despite US diplomatic efforts over the past year.
At least 200,000 Russian troops have died during Russia's four-year invasion of Ukraine, independent media outlets reported Tuesday.
Russian news outlet Mediazona, together with the BBC and a team of volunteers, has collected the names of 200,186 troops killed in the war by scouring news reports, social media and government websites.
Neither Moscow nor Kyiv gives timely data on military losses, and each is at pains to amplify the other side's casualties. Russia has publicly acknowledged the deaths of just over 6,000 soldiers.
European lawmakers cheered Zelenskyy, who met with them on a videoconference during an extraordinary session of the European Parliament commemorating the anniversary of the war's start.
Lawmakers from Portugal to Finland praised Ukraine and blasted Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, whose last-minute objection sank new efforts to help Ukraine and raise the costs on Russia for prosecuting the war.
“He has become Putin's cheap servant, Viktor Orban, in recent years, and today has not only betrayed Ukraine, but he has betrayed all of us. He has betrayed Europe,” said German member of parliament Terry Reintke.
While a few criticised Ukraine, an overwhelming majority of lawmakers lauded Ukrainian resolve, wore blue and yellow flower pins, blasted Putin and pledged continued support for the war-ravaged nation many see as a future EU member.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer has paid tribute to the resilience of Ukrainians as he told his Cabinet that Kyiv's allies “must defeat the falsehood that Russia is winning.”
“When this conflict broke out four years ago, it was assumed it would be a matter of weeks before Putin took the whole of Ukraine. That's what everybody believed," Starmer said.
Four years later, the Ukrainians are holding out against that aggression, holding out on the front line where the circumstances are extremely challenging, but also holding out in civilian life where every day Ukrainians get up and go to work as a sign of resilience and defiance.
Starmer said that over the last year alone, "Russia took 0.8% of land in Ukraine at a terrible cost to themselves, half a million losses.”
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said Russia has not achieved all of its goals in its war on Ukraine, but that Russia's operation would continue and that Russian interests would be secured.
When asked how Russia had changed over the last four years, Peskov said that Russian society had rallied around Putin. He also said that Russian society had matured in “understanding our roots” and “understanding what is good and what is bad in international affairs around the world.”
He said the past four years have been very important in Russia's history and that the country will move forward.