Zelensky condemns Russian attacks on Kostiantynivka: 'The evil state must be defeated'

A Ukrainian military victory is the only thing that will end Russia's "terror" and restore freedom to all captured territories, President Volodymyr Zelensky said in his evening address on April 2.

"This evil state," Zelensky said, "For which it has become the norm to hit residential buildings with Uragan rockets, to launch S-300s in cities, to shell ordinary villages, people... the evil state must be defeated.

Zelensky's speech followed Russian attacks on Kostiantynivka in Donetsk Oblast, killing six people in a residential area and wounding 11 others.

Kostiantynivka, which is close to Bakhmut, is used as a second-line staging area by Ukrainian troops holding the line on that part of the front.

April 2 was also the anniversary of the liberation of Kyiv Oblast in 2022, when Russian forces were ordered to pull out from the north of Ukraine, acknowledging the complete failure of the attempt to capture Ukraine's capital and topple the Ukrainian state.

Zelensky said that a day will come when Ukraine will celebrate the last Russians being killed or driven out of currently occupied territories, including Donetsk, Luhansk and Kherson Oblasts, as well as Crimea.

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Kyiv IndependentThaisa Semenova