Zelenskyy and Putin promise victory in contrasting New Year’s speeches by Health & Fitness Journal

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©Health & Fitness Journal. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy addresses the Ukrainian people on New Year’s Eve amid the Russian attack on Ukraine in Kyiv, Ukraine, in this handout picture released December 31, 2022. Press Service of the President of Ukraine/Handout via REUTERS 2/2

By Lidia Kelly

(Health & Fitness Journal) – Leaders of Ukraine and Russia both vowed to press for victory in New Year’s speeches, but while Volodymyr Zelenskiy spoke of gratitude and pain, Vladimir Putin called for duty to Russia and portrayed the war as a near-existential struggle.

Recalling some of the war’s most dramatic moments and victories, Zelenskyy filled his emotional 17-minute video message with footage of Russia’s attacks on the country and words of pride for Ukrainians who have withstood attack, darkness and cold.

“We were told: You have no choice but to surrender. We say: We have no choice but to win,” said Zelenskiy, wearing his signature khaki outfit and standing in the dark with the Ukrainian flag behind it fluttered.

“We fight as one team – the whole country, all our regions. I admire you all.”

Minutes after Zelenskyy’s speech, which was released just before midnight Kiev time on New Year’s Eve, numerous explosions were heard in the capital and across the country. The attacks followed a barrage from more than 20 cruise missiles fired over Ukraine on Saturday – and many earlier bombings.

As the war enters its 11th month, Moscow was unprepared for the steadfast resistance and billions of dollars in Western weapons that have turned the tide in Ukraine’s favor.

Russian troops have been driven out of more than half the territory they occupied in the first few weeks of what Putin calls a “special military operation” to “denazify” and demilitarize Ukraine. Kyiv and Western allies say Putin’s invasion was a land grab.

“Fate of Russia”

Putin, who broke with tradition by delivering the New Year’s message flanked by troops rather than from the walls of the Kremlin, spoke sternly and combatively of 2022 as the year that “clearly separated courage and heroism from treason and cowardice.”

While trying to rally support among Russians amid embarrassing battlefield setbacks and mounting internal criticism of his military strategy, Putin thanked Russian troops but also called for more from them.

“The main thing is the fate of Russia,” said Putin in a dark suit and tie. “The defense of the fatherland is our sacred duty to our ancestors and descendants. Moral, historical justice is on our side.”

Russia had planned a swift operation but, as the war dragged on, was forced to put society on a more warlike footing: call up more than 300,000 reservists, retool an economy battered by Western sanctions, and publicly say the conflict could be long.

Putin reiterated that the West allegedly intends to “destroy Russia” using Kyiv and vowed he will never allow this to happen. He signaled once again that the war, albeit harsh, will continue.

“We have always known and today we are again convinced that the sovereign, independent and secure future of Russia depends only on us, on our strength and will,” he said.

ATTACHMENT

Zelenskyi promised to return land annexed to Moscow in September.

“It’s impossible to forget. And it’s impossible to forgive. But it’s possible to win,” he said.

Listing Ukraine’s achievements, Zelenskyy pointed to the Crimean Bridge, Moscow’s symbol of the peninsula’s annexation, which linked it to Russia and which was destroyed by an explosion in October.

While Putin immediately accused Kyiv of orchestrating the powerful blast, Ukraine had previously taken no responsibility for it — or for any other attacks inside Russia since Russia’s February 24 invasion.

“This year touched our hearts. We all cried tears. We all shouted prayers,” said Zelenskyy.

“We are fighting and will continue to fight. For the sake of the keyword: ‘victory’.”