Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky sounded confident of victory in a televised New Year's address to the nation, hours after warning Russia there would be no forgiveness.
"We fight and we will continue fighting. For the key word: victory. There will be it for sure. We have been approaching it for 311 days," he said.
According to Zelenski, this year could be described as a "year of losses for Ukraine, for the whole of Europe, for the whole world", but it is a "mistake", he added.
"We have not lost anything. They have taken it from us. Ukraine has not lost sons and daughters: they have been taken by murderers. Ukrainians have not lost their houses: they were destroyed by terrorists. We did not lose our lands: invaders entered them. The world has not lost peace: Russia has destroyed it," he stressed.
He added that it is impossible to forget and forgive him, "but it is possible to win." "I want to tell you all: Ukrainians, you are amazing! Look what we have done and what we are doing!" she brandished.
He noted that without knowing for sure what the new year will bring to Ukrainians, they are "prepared for anything." "New achievements? We will rejoice. New attacks? We will be unbreakable. Will the fighting continue? We will fight. And when we win, we will embrace each other," he assured.
Zelensky wished the Ukrainians victory and "may this year be the year of return." "The return of our people, of the soldiers with their families, of the prisoners to their homes, of the displaced to their Ukraine, the return of our territories, and those temporarily occupied will be free forever, the return to normal life, to happy moments without a curfew, to earthly joys without air alerts, the return of what has been stolen from us," he confided.
He also expressed his wish that the main success that appears in the reports is "603,628 square kilometers, the area of independent Ukraine, as it was since 1991, as it always will be."
A few hours earlier, Zelensky addressed the Russian population in a Telegram message collected by the Ukrinform agency to warn them that there will be no forgiveness.
He told them that Russian President Vladimir Putin wants to show that he has the military behind him, that he is in the lead. "But it hides. It hides behind the troops, behind the missiles, behind the walls of your residences and palaces. It hides behind you and burns your country and your future. No one will forgive your terror. No one in the world will forgive you. that. Ukraine will not forgive."
