Zelensky congratulates on country's Independence Day

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky congratulated Ukrainians on Thursday (24 August) as the war-torn country marks its 32nd Independence Day. He said in a speech, “A holiday of strong people. A holiday of people with dignity,” Zelensky said, according to a press release from the Presidential Office of Ukraine. Calling “an independent Ukraine” what “we are fighting for,” Zelensky lauded the contributions from every citizen saying, “in a big war, there are no small deeds.”

He thanked all Ukrainians on the front lines along with the volunteers and families behind them. He also mourned the fallen soldiers, calling them “heroes who prevented us from losing Ukraine.”

Zelensky celebrated the “thousands of Ukrainian medics who save thousands of lives,” and the journalists, among others, who spread “the truth about Ukraine and this war in different languages.”

The president also assured Ukrainians “under occupation” who have “waited and will witness the return of Ukraine.”

August 24 marks the anniversary of Ukraine's 1991 declaration that it would break with the Soviet Union.

Source: CNN