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Commander-in-Chief of Ukraine’s Armed Forces Valerii Zaluzhnyi thanked Ukrainian defenders in a video to mark the one-year anniversary of Russia's full-scale invasion on Feb. 24.
"At the core of our strength is people — people of concrete, people of steel. They are ordinary people and heroes, among us and with us in the ranks. Thank you. I am proud of you," Zaluzhnyi said. "It is thanks to you we survived. Thanks to you, we will win."
Zaluzhnyi said that the country had become stronger as a result of the most challenging battles of the past nine years, which included the Battle of Donetsk Airport from 2014-2015, as well as the last stand at Azovstal during the siege of Mariupol from February to May 2022.
One year later: How Russia came to fail in Ukraine, battle after battle
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