Zelensky vows 'retaliation' against Russia on Ukraine's Independence Day

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky promised & ;quot;repr&eac;sizes" &agrav; Russia for its invasion of Ukraine and promulgated the law banning the Moscow-linked Ukrainian Orthodox Church on Saturday, the day his country celebrates its independence from Soviet Union.

On August 6, Ukrainian forces took the fighting to their adversary's soil by launching an offensive of unprecedented scale in the Russian border region of Kursk. They have seized dozens of localities there, while Russian troops continue to advance in Donbass, eastern Ukraine.

Photo provided by the press service of the Ukrainian presidency showing Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and his wife Olena, on August 24, 2024 in Kiev © UKRAINIAN PRESIDENTIAL PRESS SERVICE – Handout

Russia wanted to “destroy us” but the war has “returned home,” Zelensky told his compatriots in a video recorded in a forest area of ​​the Sumy region, the border area from where kyiv launched its surprise offensive into Russia.

kyiv “surprises once again,” Zelenky said, promising that Russia “will learn what retaliation is.”

By launching its invasion in the spring of 2022, “Russia wanted only one thing: to destroy us. Instead of “Today we celebrate the 33rd Independence Day of Ukraine,” he continued.

The Ukrainian president added: “Whoever wants to sow evil on our land will reap the fruits on his own territory. This is neither a prediction, nor boasting, nor blind revenge. This is only justice.”

A Ukrainian soldier after a night combat mission in Donbass on August 24, 2024 © AFP – Genya SAVILOV

He called Russian President Vladimir Putin “a sick old man from Red Square who constantly threatens everyone with the nuclear red button.”

For several days, Moscow has been threatening a nuclear catastrophe in the event of an attack by the Ukrainian army on the Kursk nuclear power plant, located about fifty kilometers from Ukrainian positions in the region. Mr. Putin has assured that Ukraine had tried to strike the site.

– “Freeing oneself” from Russian tutelage –

Mr. Zelensky took part in the official independence celebrations on St. Sophia Square in kyiv on Saturday, alongside Polish President Andrzej Duda and Lithuanian Prime Minister Ingrida Simonyte, two major supporters of his country.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky addressing his compatriots in a message broadcast on August 24, 2024 © UKRAINIAN PRESIDENTIAL PRESS SERVICE – Handout

He said Ukrainian forces had successfully tested a new missile. “Today, the first successful use of our new weapon, the Palyanytsia drone missile, took place,” the Ukrainian president said, thanking its designers.

Mr. Zelensky also signed into law the law banning the branch of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church under the Moscow Patriarchate, which was long the country's main denomination.

This branch cut ties with Moscow in 2022, but Ukrainian authorities still consider it to be under Russian influence and have stepped up legal proceedings against it, leading to the imprisonment of dozens of priests.

Although this Church is losing influence in the face of the new independent Ukrainian Orthodox Church founded in 2018, it still retains thousands of parishes across the country. According to a 2023 poll by the Kiev International Institute of Sociology, 66% of Ukrainians were in favor of such a ban.

“Ukrainian Orthodox Christians are taking a step today to free themselves from the demons of Moscow,” said Volodymyr Zelensky.

– At the gates of Pokrovsk –

While the Ukrainian military offensive launched on August 6 in the Russian region of Kursk is receiving a lot of attention because it is bringing hostilities to the attacker's soil, the epicenter of the fighting remains in the Ukrainian industrial region of Donbass (East), where the Russian army has the advantage.

Russian forces are approaching there in particular Pokrovsk, a major logistics hub and a town of some 53,000 people, has been called by authorities to urgently evacuate. They were less than ten kilometres from the town on Friday.

Ukrainian authorities have said their offensive in Russia is aimed at creating a “buffer zone” against the bombing, forcing Moscow into “fair” negotiations and pushing the Russian army to redeploy forces from other parts of the front.

Since the start of this operation, more than 130,000 people have fled the fighting and bombing in the Kursk region, according to authorities. At least 31 civilians have been killed and 143 injured, according to a partial report by the Russian state news agency TASS.

This Ukrainian offensive does not seem to have slowed the Russian advance in eastern Ukraine, where Moscow's forces have seized village after village this week.

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