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On the second anniversary of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy thanked everyone who has supported Ukraine. Because of their cooperation, he said, "millions in Ukraine and in neighboring countries around Russia can feel that their homeland will not become Putin's backyard."
Zelenskyy used his nightly video address to remind the world of Russia's "imperial ambitions and revanchism" and struck an optimistic note that Russia will be defeated because "when the world's leading democracies are truly determined, this determination overcomes all challenges."
"We must ensure" Russia loses, he said, then "the entire global community of nations - and international law as such - will prevail."
Ukrainians commemorated the day by laying flowers to honor their dead, weeping and hoping for victory despite the mounting number of war dead and a Russian offensive that shows no sign of letting up.
G7 pledges support
Leaders of the Group of Seven major democracies marked the second anniversary by pledging to support Ukraine for as long as needed in its war against Russia.
In a statement, the G7 denounced the support of China and Iran for Russia's war on Ukraine and called on Iran to stop helping Russia's military. They also expressed concern about the transfer by Chinese businesses of weapons components and military equipment to Moscow.
Earlier, Western leaders such as European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau visited the Ukrainian capital to mark the gruesome anniversary in a show of support.
Meloni and Trudeau signed a 10-year defense pact with Ukraine's president and Meloni told the Ukrainian people they "are not alone" in the fight. Trudeau said, "we will stand with Ukraine with whatever it takes, for as long as it takes."
Trudeau pledged about $2.25 billion in financial and military support for Ukraine this year.
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The Canadian and Italian security deals mirror similar pacts signed recently with Britain, France, Germany and Denmark.
However, $61 billion in aid promised by U.S. President Joe Biden is still stalled by the U.S. House of Representatives, denting Kyiv's hopes of pushing back the much larger, better supplied Russian military.
U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer visited Ukraine on Friday. He urged House members to "do the right thing" and pass the Ukraine military aid bill.
Earlier Friday, the U.S. government imposed more than 500 new sanctions on Russian entities in the single largest round of penalties since the war began.
The government said the sanctions mark both the second anniversary of the invasion and the death of Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny at an Arctic prison.
Biden noted the new sanctions will target individuals connected to Navalny's imprisonment, as well as Russia's financial sector.
"They will ensure Putin pays an even steeper price for his aggression abroad and repression at home," he said.
As the war enters its third year, Russian forces hold around 18% of Ukraine's territory and new offensives are surging in the east, buoyed by the capture of the ruined town of Avdiivka last weekend.
Exhausted by two years of fighting, Ukraine's government faces challenges, such as renewing battlefield manpower without undermining Ukraine's fragile economy.
As Zelenskyy led commemorative events Saturday, some Ukrainians expressed fear that the war would last years.
"I'm a realist and understand that most likely the war will drag on for the next three or four years," Denys Symonovskiy, a Kyiv resident, told Reuters. "I hope society will mobilize, I hope we'll be able to somehow defeat Russia."
Funerals every day
In the western city of Lviv, hundreds of kilometers from the fighting, women cried as a priest led prayers in a cemetery festooned with blue-and-yellow Ukrainian flags, each marking the death of a soldier.
"The boys are holding the front line. We can only imagine what effort and price is paid for every peaceful day we have. I want to believe it's not all in vain. We have funerals every day," Evhenia Demchuk, a widow and mother of two, told Reuters.
In Warsaw, hundreds of protesters marked the second anniversary of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine by gathering outside the Russian Embassy at the Polish capital. Some left a pile of manure outside the home of Moscow's ambassador to Poland Saturday.
Pictures of the protest seen by Reuters showed protesters at the Russian Embassy waving Ukrainian and Polish flags alongside banners with slogans excoriating Russians. A bloodied Russian flag with the letter "Z" on it was propped on a pile of manure with a sign that said "We don't want you in EU! Get out!"
Poland has been a staunch supporter of Ukraine's fight against the Russian invasion despite tensions with Kyiv over agricultural imports and regulations for truckers.
Meanwhile, officials in Ukraine said a Russian drone struck a residential building in the southern port city of Odesa late Friday, killing at least one person and injuring several others.
The military said several Russian drones were shot down over Odesa during the nighttime aerial assault.
VOA's State Department Bureau Chief Nike Ching contributed to this report. Some information for this story came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
The Voice of America provides news and information in more than 40 languages to an estimated weekly audience of over 326 million people. Stories with the VOA News byline are the work of multiple VOA journalists and may contain information from wire service reports.