The Ukrainian president insisted that the threat has not diminished and that, although Ukraine is resisting, it has not yet achieved a security architecture that definitively closes the door to new aggressions.
Throughout the day, leaders present in Kyiv and Zelensky himself participated via videoconference in a meeting of the Coalition of Volunteers, an initiative driven by France and the United Kingdom and composed of more than thirty countries, with the aim of designing security commitments for Ukraine in the event of a ceasefire.
The contrast is inevitable and serves as an uncomfortable reminder: Vladimir Putin launched the invasion under the pretext of a 'special military operation' that, according to his initial account, would be resolved in three days. And so, for Ukraine, resistance is not just a military strategy: it is a matter of national survival.
In the streets, in temples, and at official events, the same idea that has run through the country since 2022 was felt: the war did not start over a border dispute, but over a decision of power.
The message sought to bolster public morale and emphasize that, despite the suffering, the country prevented the outcome that the Kremlin had imagined in the first days of the invasion.
On the Russian side, the official discourse remained its course. Today, four years later, the 'operation' has become a long, devastating war with no end in sight, with battered cities, millions displaced, and a weariness that affects all of Europe.
Parallel to the commemorative events, Zelensky again focused on the need to maintain unity between Europe and the United States. According to his explanation, the main objective would be to guarantee the 'security' of the population in eastern Ukraine, a formulation that Kyiv and its allies consider a political justification for sustaining a military aggression against a sovereign country.
In Kyiv, the message for February 24th combined mourning and determination. In a video released in the morning, Zelensky stated that Putin 'did not achieve his objectives', that he did not break the Ukrainians, and that Ukraine 'has preserved' its state and its identity.
In the Ukrainian government, they repeat a central idea: any 'pause' without solid guarantees can be merely an intermission for Russia to rearm and try again what it could not achieve by force in 2022.
The commemoration also had a tone of political and moral balance. There was no empty epic: there was a reminder of what has been lost and a bet on what can still be defended.
In a video conference address to the European Parliament, he admitted that 'it is not an easy task' to maintain the transatlantic bond 'under the current circumstances', but warned that only with both poles 'united' can the advance of Russia continue to be halted and lasting security guarantees be built.
