Zelensky declares 2025 pivotal for Ukraine to stop Russia; Ukrainian doctors rebuild the faces and lives of wounded soldiers; and Ukraine’s Ministry of Defense says it greenlit +1,300 weapons in 2024.
Zelensky declares 2025 a pivotal year for Ukraine to stop Russia
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky on Tuesday vowed that the country would use 2025 to fight for an end to Russia’s nearly three-year-long invasion at all costs. “May 2025 be our year,” Zelensky said in an address to the nation just before the clock struck midnight in Kyiv. “We know that peace will not be given to us as a gift but we will do everything to stop Russia and end the war.”
Residents of several cities, including Kyiv, had to take shelter during air raid alerts that rang out throughout the night. Ukraine lost seven times more territory to Russia in 2024 than in 2023, according to an AFP analysis, and is facing the possibility of a reduction in US military and political backing when President-elect Donald Trump takes over the White House.