UK PM marks Ukraine war 4th anniv, insists Russia not winning

LONDON, Feb 24 (KUNA) -- Prime Minister Keir Starmer marked on Tuesday the fourth anniversary of the Ukraine war, commending in a speech Ukrainiansآ’ resistance of the Russian assault and refuting Moscowآ’s claims of winning the conflict.
In his speech, Starmer said, "We must defeat the falsehood that Russia is winning. Because if you take the last year alone, Russia took 0.8 pct, of land in Ukraine at a terrible cost to themselves of half a million losses." He commended Ukraine for its war efforts, and asserted, "We pay tribute to the resilience of Ukrainians. We all want a just and lasting peace. And that is what weآ’re all working so hard for." Starmer affirmed that peace was the goal and that the Coalition of the Willing, a multinational force led by the UK and France, was formed a year ago to achieve just that, noting that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was willing to achieve peace and accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of the opposite intention.
He went on to say that Ukraine was "very much the frontline of our freedom, but we need to bear that in mind as we lost four years since the outbreak of this conflict." The UK recently announced a batch of GBP 30 million to fund Ukrainian energy resilience and support recovery, taking the total UK support to GBP 21.8 billion since the start of the war.
Britain also announced a new package of sanctions against Russian, targeting mainly Russian oil and energy infrastructure. (end) gta.aa