{"id":32601,"date":"2026-08-24T12:02:08","date_gmt":"2026-08-24T12:02:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/32601\/"},"modified":"2026-08-24T12:02:08","modified_gmt":"2026-08-24T12:02:08","slug":"ukraine-wants-peace-but-wont-simply-surrender-zelensky-says-on-independence-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/32601\/","title":{"rendered":"Ukraine wants peace but won\u2019t \u2018simply surrender\u2019, Zelensky says on Independence Day"},"content":{"rendered":"<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">\u2060Ukraine wants peace but will not just give in to Russia at any price, President Volodymyr Zelensky has said in a defiant speech as foreign leaders gather in Kyiv to mark its Independence Day celebrations.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">British Prime Minister Andy Burnham and European Council President Antonio Costa were among the foreign dignitaries present on Monday for celebrations of the 35th anniversary of Ukraine\u2019s break from the Soviet Union.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Burnham, making his first visit to the Ukrainian capital as prime minister, was \u200cdue to announce British support to help Kyiv boost its domestic production of long-range missiles.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">He was also scheduled to co-chair a virtual meeting of the \u201cCoalition of the Willing\u201d \u2013 a group of countries backing Ukraine \u2013 with French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz. The leaders were expected to discuss Ukraine\u2019s request for more air defence systems to stop Russian ballistic missiles pounding Ukrainian cities.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Ukrainian military members and others sing the country\u2019s national anthem as they pay tribute to fallen Ukrainian soldiers at Lychakiv Cemetery in Lviv on Monday. Photo: AFP\" data-qa=\"BaseImage-handleRenderImage-StyledImage\" class=\"e1gf69pb2 css-6ikqhs e445x7d0\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/faa06be4-f31b-4030-a2ab-296db61ba765_78917f9d.jpg\" title=\"Ukrainian military members and others sing the country\u2019s national anthem as they pay tribute to fallen Ukrainian soldiers at Lychakiv Cemetery in Lviv on Monday. Photo: AFP\"\/>Ukrainian military members and others sing the country\u2019s national anthem as they pay tribute to fallen Ukrainian soldiers at Lychakiv Cemetery in Lviv on Monday. Photo: AFP<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Wearing a traditional Ukrainian embroidered shirt, Zelensky thanked several foreign leaders for travelling to Kyiv to show their support. He vowed to find a solution to what he called Russian President Vladimir Putin\u2019s \u201cballistic terror\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u2060Ukraine wants peace but will not just give in to Russia at any price, President Volodymyr Zelensky has&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":32602,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[4472,1140,7979,39,999,758,1172,8023,650,195,158,423,7618,25,26,196,33,35],"class_list":["post-32601","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","tag-andy-burnham","tag-antonio-costa","tag-british","tag-china","tag-donbas","tag-donetsk","tag-european-council","tag-flamingo-cruise-missile","tag-friedrich-merz","tag-germany","tag-kyiv","tag-luhansk","tag-ozon","tag-russia","tag-ukraine","tag-united-states","tag-vladimir-putin","tag-volodymyr-zelensky"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32601","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32601"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32601\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32602"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32601"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32601"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32601"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}