Defiant Zelenskiy pledges powerful response to Russia on eve of war's six-month milestone | The Business Standard
Skip to main content
  • Latest
  • Economy
    • Banking
    • Stocks
    • Industry
    • Analysis
    • Bazaar
    • RMG
    • Corporates
    • Aviation
  • Videos
    • TBS Today
    • TBS Stories
    • TBS World
    • News of the day
    • TBS Programs
    • Podcast
    • Editor's Pick
  • World+Biz
  • Features
    • Panorama
    • The Big Picture
    • Pursuit
    • Habitat
    • Thoughts
    • Splash
    • Mode
    • Tech
    • Explorer
    • Brands
    • In Focus
    • Book Review
    • Earth
    • Food
    • Luxury
    • Wheels
  • More
    • Sports
    • TBS Graduates
    • Bangladesh
    • Supplement
    • Infograph
    • Archive
    • Gallery
    • Long Read
    • Interviews
    • Offbeat
    • Magazine
    • Climate Change
    • Health
    • Cartoons
  • বাংলা
The Business Standard

Saturday
June 14, 2025

Sign In
Subscribe
  • Latest
  • Economy
    • Banking
    • Stocks
    • Industry
    • Analysis
    • Bazaar
    • RMG
    • Corporates
    • Aviation
  • Videos
    • TBS Today
    • TBS Stories
    • TBS World
    • News of the day
    • TBS Programs
    • Podcast
    • Editor's Pick
  • World+Biz
  • Features
    • Panorama
    • The Big Picture
    • Pursuit
    • Habitat
    • Thoughts
    • Splash
    • Mode
    • Tech
    • Explorer
    • Brands
    • In Focus
    • Book Review
    • Earth
    • Food
    • Luxury
    • Wheels
  • More
    • Sports
    • TBS Graduates
    • Bangladesh
    • Supplement
    • Infograph
    • Archive
    • Gallery
    • Long Read
    • Interviews
    • Offbeat
    • Magazine
    • Climate Change
    • Health
    • Cartoons
  • বাংলা
SATURDAY, JUNE 14, 2025
Defiant Zelenskiy pledges powerful response to Russia on eve of war's six-month milestone

World+Biz

Reuters
23 August, 2022, 08:00 pm
Last modified: 23 August, 2022, 08:02 pm

Related News

  • Trump, Zelensky meeting at Pope Francis' funeral 'very productive': White House
  • EU leaders agree on defence surge, support Zelenskiy after US aid freeze
  • Trump tells 'dictator' Zelenskiy to move fast for peace or lose Ukraine
  • Ukraine's Zelenskiy hopes to meet Donald Trump next week
  • Zelenskiy says it's for Ukraine to determine his legitimacy, not Putin

Defiant Zelenskiy pledges powerful response to Russia on eve of war's six-month milestone

Reuters
23 August, 2022, 08:00 pm
Last modified: 23 August, 2022, 08:02 pm
Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy attends a joint news conference with Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda, as Russia's attack on Ukraine continues, in Kyiv, Ukraine July 28, 2022. Ukrainian Presidential Press Service/Handout via REUTERS
Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy attends a joint news conference with Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda, as Russia's attack on Ukraine continues, in Kyiv, Ukraine July 28, 2022. Ukrainian Presidential Press Service/Handout via REUTERS

Summary

  • US urges citizens to leave Ukraine 'now'
  • Heightened fears of attack on Kyiv around independence day
  • Wednesday marks six months since Russian invasion
  • Zelenskiy pledges powerful response to any attack

As Ukraine prepared to mark both its independence from Soviet-rule in 1991 and the six months since Russian troops invaded, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy pledged that any Russian attacks in or around the date would provoke a powerful response.

Zelenskiy, who has led his country's resistance since Russian troops poured over the border on 24 Feb, also said Ukraine would restore its rule over the Crimea region - annexed by Russia in 2014 in a precursor to this year's invasion.

The Business Standard Google News Keep updated, follow The Business Standard's Google news channel

Despite his defiance, there was concern among Ukrainian and allied Western officials that Russia was preparing to attack the capital Kyiv once again.

The United States urged its citizens to leave Ukraine, saying it believed Russia would target civilian and government infrastructure in the next few days. US citizens should leave Ukraine "now" by their own means if it was safe to do so, the US Embassy said.

On the battlefields away from Kyiv, Russian forces carried out artillery and air strikes in the Zaporizhzhia region in southeastern Ukraine, where fighting has taken place near Europe's largest nuclear power plant, Ukraine's military said.

Meanwhile leaders of dozens of countries and international organizations were taking part in the so-called Crimea Platform - most of them by video - in solidarity with Ukraine on the six-month anniversary of the invasion.

Opening the forum, Zelenskiy, dressed in his customary military gear, told delegates: "To overcome terror, it is necessary to gain victory in the fight against Russian aggression."

"It is necessary to liberate Crimea. This will be the resuscitation of world law and order," he said.

Italy's acting Prime Minister Mario Draghi told the summit Rome would continue to support Ukraine. "We are with you in your fight to resist Russia's invasion, restore Ukraine's territorial integrity, protect your democracy and independence," he said.

Earlier, Zelenskiy had warned that Moscow might try "something particularly ugly" in the run-up to Wednesday's Independence Day. Asked at a news conference with visiting Polish President Andrzej Duda about the possibility of a Russian missile strike on Kyiv, Zelenskiy said there was a daily threat of attacks although the number of them could increase.

Ukraine's response would be the same for any city that comes under attack from Russia.

"They will receive a response, a powerful response," Zelenskiy said. "I want to say that each day...this response will grow, it will get stronger and stronger."

Fears of intensified Russian attacks followed the killing of Darya Dugina, the daughter of a prominent Russian ultra-nationalist, in a car bombing near Moscow on Saturday. Moscow blamed the killing on Ukrainian agents, a charge Kyiv denies.

Kyiv has only rarely been hit by Russian missiles since Ukraine repelled a ground offensive to seize the capital in March.

The mood in the city was calm on Tuesday, with many people still wandering the streets, but signs of the increased threat could be felt.

Authorities have told Ukrainians to work from home where possible from Tuesday to Thursday, also urging people to take air raid warnings seriously and seek shelter when sirens sound.

The Kyiv city administration banned large public gatherings until Thursday, fearing that a crowd of celebrating residents could become a target for a Russian missile strike.

Neuclear powered KEG

Six months on from the Russian invasion, which has caused thousands of deaths, made millions of people refugees and destroyed whole cities, the conflict is locked in a stalemate.

Russian forces control a large swathe of the south, including along the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov coasts, and chunks of the eastern Donbas region. The prospects for peace look almost non-existent.

Russian shelling hit eastern Kharkiv - Ukraine's second-largest city - around dawn on Tuesday, regional governor Oleh Synehubov said. A house had been hit but no one was hurt, he said.

In the south, Ukraine said Russia fired artillery and mounted air strikes in several towns in the Zaporizhzhia region, where Russian forces captured the nuclear power plant shortly after the start of the invasion.

Artillery and rocket fire near the Zaporizhzhia nuclear reactor complex, on the south bank of the Dnipro River, has led to calls for the area to be demilitarised. The two sides have traded blame over frequent shelling at the plant.

In other action, Ukrainian forces shelled a building housing the local administration headquarters in the centre of separatist-controlled Donetsk city on Tuesday, TASS news agency reported, quoting Russian-installed officials. Three people were killed, it said.

Russia's defence ministry said its forces had downed a Ukrainian SU-27 warplane over the Kharkiv region.

Russia sent its troops over the border in what it calls a "special military operation" saying it wanted to demilitarise its neighbour and protect Russian-speaking communities. Ukraine and its Western allies accuse Moscow of waging an unjustified war of aggression.

The United Nations said on Monday that 5,587 civilians had been killed and 7,890 wounded between Feb. 24 and Aug. 21, mainly from artillery, rocket and missile attacks. Its children's agency UNICEF said at least 972 children have been killed or injured over six months of war.

Separately, Ukrainian armed forces chief General Valeriy Zaluzhnyi provided what appeared to be the first public Ukrainian military death toll, saying nearly 9,000 soldiers had been killed in action.

Russia has not said how many of its soldiers have been killed. Ukraine's General Staff have estimated the Russian military death toll at 45,400.

Reuters has been unable to verify military losses.

Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelenskiy

Comments

While most comments will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive, moderation decisions are subjective. Published comments are readers’ own views and The Business Standard does not endorse any of the readers’ comments.

Top Stories

  • Burnt out cars and damaged buildings are all that’s left of this street in Ramat Gan Credit: AP
    Iran threatens to strike US, UK, and French bases if they help defend Israel
  • Logo of the Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami. Photo: Collected
    Joint press briefing by Yunus, Tarique a breach of political norms, Jamaat says questioning CA's partiality
  • Tour operator Borsha Islam. Photo: Collected
    ‘Tour Expert’ admin Borsha Islam arrested over Bandarban tourist deaths

MOST VIEWED

  • Energy adviser Fouzul Kabir Khan with other government officials during a visit to Sylhet gas field on 13 June 2025. Photo: TBS
    I would disconnect gas supply to every home in Dhaka if I could: Energy adviser
  • BNP Acting Chairperson Tarique Rahman and Chief Adviser  Muhammad Yunus meet at Dorchester Hotel in London, UK on 13 June 2025. Photo: CA Press Wing
    National polls possible in 2nd week of February, agree Yunus, Tarique in 'historic' London meeting
  • Rescuers work at the scene of a damaged building in the aftermath of Israeli strikes, in Tehran, Iran, June 13, 2025. Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via REUTERS
    Tehran retaliates with 100 drones after Israel strikes Iran's nuclear facilities, kills military leaders
  • From fact-checker to fact-checked: CA Press Wing’s turn in the hot seat
    From fact-checker to fact-checked: CA Press Wing’s turn in the hot seat
  • UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer, Chief Adviser Muhammad Yunus
    Disclosure of unconfirmed Yunus-Starmer meeting shows ‘diplomatic imprudence’: Analysts
  • Flight AI 379 had landed. File Photo: Hindustan Times
    Day after Ahmedabad crash, Air India flight makes emergency landing in Thailand after bomb threat

Related News

  • Trump, Zelensky meeting at Pope Francis' funeral 'very productive': White House
  • EU leaders agree on defence surge, support Zelenskiy after US aid freeze
  • Trump tells 'dictator' Zelenskiy to move fast for peace or lose Ukraine
  • Ukraine's Zelenskiy hopes to meet Donald Trump next week
  • Zelenskiy says it's for Ukraine to determine his legitimacy, not Putin

Features

Photos: Collected

Kurtis that make a great office wear

1d | Mode
Among pet birds in the country, lovebirds are the most common, and they are also the most numerous in the haat. Photo: Junayet Rashel

Where feathers meet fortune: How a small pigeon stall became Dhaka’s premiere bird market

2d | Panorama
Illustration: Duniya Jahan/ TBS

Forget Katy Perry, here’s Bangladesh’s Ruthba Yasmin shooting for the moon

3d | Features
File photo of Eid holidaymakers returning to the capital from their country homes/Rajib Dhar

Dhaka: The city we never want to return to, but always do

5d | Features

More Videos from TBS

Iran's counterattack: US ambassador visits shelter 5 times

Iran's counterattack: US ambassador visits shelter 5 times

14m | TBS World
No trade war, this time US-China in mutual agreement

No trade war, this time US-China in mutual agreement

49m | Others
Putin engages in back-to-back calls with Iran and Israel leaders

Putin engages in back-to-back calls with Iran and Israel leaders

1h | TBS World
How mobile wallets are driving the rise of digital nano loans

How mobile wallets are driving the rise of digital nano loans

1h | TBS Insight
EMAIL US
contact@tbsnews.net
FOLLOW US
WHATSAPP
+880 1847416158
The Business Standard
  • About Us
  • Contact us
  • Sitemap
  • Advertisement
  • Privacy Policy
  • Comment Policy
Copyright © 2025
The Business Standard All rights reserved
Technical Partner: RSI Lab

Contact Us

The Business Standard

Main Office -4/A, Eskaton Garden, Dhaka- 1000

Phone: +8801847 416158 - 59

Send Opinion articles to - oped.tbs@gmail.com

For advertisement- sales@tbsnews.net