Notable contrast between the respective New Year's messages of the presidents of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, and of Russia, Vladimir Putin, while both countries remain entrenched in a war without major progress in recent months. If the Ukrainian president devoted his speech almost exclusively to the conflict, Putin limited himself to Zelenskiy, honoring the resistance of his people in times of bloodshed in a long and lyrical New Year's speech, while Russian leader Vladimir Putin emphasized the unity of his country in a brief and severe message that made only passing reference to the war.
The speeches come as both countries marked the end of the year with an increase in airstrikes on each other's territories. But neither side can point to major achievements on the front lines in 2023. "The main achievement of the year: Ukraine has become stronger," Zelensky stressed in a televised speech interspersed with images of cities under attack and meetings with leaders of Western allies. from Ukraine.
Mentioning "war" 14 times in his 20-minute message, Zelensky also promised, as he did a year ago, that a free Ukraine would prevail. "No matter how many rockets the enemy launches, no matter how many bombings and attacks - vile, ruthless, massive - the enemy carries out in an attempt to subdue the Ukrainians, intimidate them, bring down Ukraine, drive it underground, we still we will rise," he said, dressed in his trademark khaki military suit.
The words of Putin, who faces elections in March, contrasted sharply with those of Zelensky and even with his own speech last year, when he presented the war as an almost existential struggle.
This year, he called Russian soldiers "our heroes," but did not mention Ukraine by name or refer to the "special military operation," his term for the war that sparked his invasion in February 2022.
"We have shown more than once that we can solve the most difficult problems and that we will never go back, because there is no force that can divide us," Putin said in a four-minute speech, dressed in a suit and red tie, in front of a backdrop of the Kremlin walls. "We are a country, a big family," he concluded.
The war, the deadliest conflict in Europe since World War II, is approaching its second anniversary with no end in sight. Thousands of people have died, millions of Ukrainians have been displaced and countless cities have been reduced to rubble.
Neither Putin nor Zelensky referred to the 1,000-kilometer (600-mile) front line where Kyiv's counteroffensive had little success and where Moscow has been advancing its latest but slow offensive along the eastern flank with the goal of taking control of more Ukrainian territory.
And while Zelensky spoke of approximately 6,000 airstrike alerts in Ukraine over the past year, Putin did not mention any strikes, not even an attack that Russia says Ukraine carried out in Belgorod in recent days, killing at least 24 civilians.
Both spoke of the strength of their countries and their people: Putin said that the future common effort will strengthen Russia and its people and Zelensky said that the war had already demonstrated the strength of the Ukrainians. "And just like last December 31, today we say: 'We don't know for sure what the New Year will bring,'" Zelensky said. "But this year we can add: 'No matter what he brings, we will be stronger.'"
