Ukraine remembers its dead as war enters a fifth year

Four years since Russia launched its full-scale invasion, people across Ukraine have remembered their dead from a war which shows no sign of ending.

As the conflict enters a fifth year, the Ukrainian military continues to resist being overrun by Russian forces, but military losses are mounting on both sides and Ukraine's population faces near-daily aerial attacks.

On Tuesday, Volodymyr Zelensky said "Ukraine never chose this war", adding: "We have defended our independence, we have not lost our statehood."

The Kremlin, which believed it could capture Kyiv within days, acknowledged its war aims "haven't been fully achieved yet" and said it intended to continue attacking Ukraine.

Spokesman Dmitry Peskov repeated a frequent Kremlin accusation that western support for Ukraine had enlarged the conflict, turning it into a "confrontation between Russia and the West".

Russia now controls just under 20% of Ukrainian territory but the Ukrainian military has prevented it from capturing the entirety of the eastern Donbas region.

Zelensky was surrounded by some of his most ardent European supporters on Tuesday, including Finland's Alexander Stubb, Sweden's Ulf Kristersson and European Commission President Ursula Von der Leyen.

A minute's silence at 10:00 brought Kyiv to a halt on a sombre day for Ukraine, though on on which a sense of solidarity was palpable.

In the city's Maidan square, where a growing host of flags has commemorated the dead since the launch of Russia's full-scale invasion, banners and heads were lowered as people stood in silent contemplation.

In Bucha, a town west of the capital that in 2022 witnessed some of the worst horrors that have accompanied Russia's full-scale invasion, a steady stream of people laid flowers on the black granite headstones of soldiers.

"The war has taken a lot of lives," observed a man called Valentyn, who had come to visit the graves of fallen comrades.

"Unfortunately for us it's too many," he said. "No-one one thought it would last this long."

The war has touched everyone in Ukraine, in so many different ways, from losses on the battlefield, to the scattering of families, and the search for warmth and light in the midst of Russia's winter bombardments.

In Zelensky's lengthy morning video address, the Ukrainian president was seen striding through subterranean corridors of the presidential palace in central Kyiv - underground passages lined with pipes and cables, reminiscent of Winston Churchill's World War Two offices in London.

Acknowledging the staggering loss of life Ukraine has endured, Zelensky said: "We have every right to say: we have defended our independence, we have not lost our statehood. Ukraine exists not just on the map."

The video offered a rare glimpse of the world where the president and his staff have spent much of their time after the start of the war in February 2022.

Back then, many thought Zelensky's days were numbered and that Ukraine would fall.

Instead, four years on, Ukraine continues to hold its own against Russian troops across the east of the country, at an ever-increasing cost of manpower and resources for Moscow.

A meeting of the so-called Coalition of the Willing was also held on Tuesday, with many leaders dialling in to Kyiv. Led by Britain and France, the coalition currently numbers around 35 countries, some of which say they are willing to deploy troops to Ukraine to ensure any potential ceasefire holds.

UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, speaking via video-link, told fellow leaders it was "wrong" to think that Russia holds the upper hand. Over the past year, Starmer said, Russia "took 0.8% of land in Ukraine at a terrible cost to themselves of half a million losses".

However, French President Emmanuel Macron acknowledged the glacial pace of peace negotiations, saying he was "very sceptical" about the possibility of achieving "peace in the short term" in Ukraine.

"Let's be lucid. There is no willingness on the Russian side to have a peace and, by the way, to have a robust and solid peace as we see it on our side," he said.

Despite several rounds of US-brokered talks involving Russian and Ukrainian delegations, a breakthrough still appears far off.

Moscow's demand that Ukraine hand over sovereign territory in the east – which thousands of Ukrainians have fought and died to protect – is unacceptable to many.

"When it comes to talks, there's one person standing in the way of progress," Sir Keir said. "And that is Putin, and nobody but Putin."

A statement by the leaders of G7 countries – including US President Donald Trump - reiterated their unwavering support for Ukraine, its defence of sovereign territory and its right to exist.

It was their first joint declaration on Ukraine since Trump's re-election.

Zelensky's negotiators have spoken warmly of American efforts to broker a ceasefire and bring about peace in Ukraine.

However, over the last year Trump has often appeared to put pressure on Ukraine to agree to an unfavourable deal, and his clear impatience with the lack of progress towards a ceasefire has left many wondering where his instincts and convictions lie.

Kyiv believes that Moscow would only heed American security guarantees, and that they are therefore key to any peace agreement.

In his video address Zelensky repeated his desire that one day the current occupant of the White House would come to Kyiv. "I know for certain: only by coming to Ukraine and seeing with one's own eyes our life and our struggle," he said, "only then can one understand what this war is really about. And because of whom."

Earlier in the day, Zelensky also stressed that Ukraine needed interceptor missiles from the US to be used with American-made Patriot air defence launchers.

Russia's aerial attacks in January and February this year appear to have depleted Ukraine's stock of those missiles, leaving cities and energy infrastructure defenceless amid the harshest winter since the start of the invasion.

The number of army and civilian casualties continues to grow. On the Russian side, the BBC has now identified the names of over 186,000 Russian soldiers killed in the war.

The true death toll is generally accepted to be much higher, as many deaths on the battlefield are not recorded.

UK Armed Forces Minister Al Carns said the cost of the war on Russia had been "almost unimaginable".

Carns said the UK Ministry of Defence estimated that Russia had suffered 1.25 million casualties overall, adding that was probably an under-estimate - and was higher than all US casualties suffered during World War Two.

Last month, Zelensky said that "officially" 55,000 Ukrainians had been killed on the battlefield – but according to other Ukrainian sources, which the BBC has cross-referenced, the number of Ukrainians killed could be as high as 200,000.

Many of them are buried in the sprawling military cemeteries now dotted across Ukraine.