Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has expressed confidence that his country will defeat invading Russian forces as the UN General Assembly prepared to vote on a motion calling for "lasting" peace and as Ukraine's allies discussed new sanctions on Russia.
Zelenskiy vowed on February 23 to keep up the fight, saying Ukraine has "overcome many ordeals, and we will prevail," adding that Ukraine "will hold to account all those who brought this evil, this war to our land."
Soon after he issued his message, the UN General Assembly voted to demand a comprehensive, just, and lasting peace and again called for Russia to stop fighting and withdrawal its forces from Ukraine.
In a vote seen as a global test of sentiment on Moscow's war against its neighbor, 141 countries favored the resolution, while China and 31 other countries abstained, and six joined Russia in voting no.
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First lady Olena Zelenska, giving a video address for an anniversary event in Vilnius, said that Ukraine on February 24 commemorates not the first anniversary of the Russian invasion but a year of successful resistance.
Ukraine has suffered "a year of hell," she said, adding that a year of full-scale war “is a terrible date to mark because it is a year of attack, aggression, and murders."
The UN General Assembly, meanwhile, was to vote later on February 23 on a resolution that demands peace and a withdrawal of Moscow's forces from Ukraine. The draft resolution reaffirms a number of previously adopted positions of the body, such as the territorial integrity of Ukraine. The vote is seen as a global test of sentiment on Moscow's war against its neighbor.
Also on the eve of the one-year anniversary, new sanctions on Russia were being discussed by G7 ministers, and the White House said the United States would announce "sweeping" new sanctions on February 24.
In Ukraine, Yuriy Ihnat, spokesman for the Ukrainian Air Force, said the air force is on heightened alert because of possible Russian provocations on the anniversary.
Oleksiy Danilov, secretary of Ukraine's National Security and Defense Council, said Ukraine must constantly be prepared, but currently there are no signs that any actions by Russia will be on the scale of what took place last year.
"We do not see that in the near future [Russia] on can invade in such a way as it happened on February 24, 2022," Danilov said on Ukrainian television.
Ukrainian forces repelled scores of Russian attacks in the eastern regions of Donetsk and Luhansk over the past day, Kyiv said of February 23.
Russia launched artillery barrages on Bakhmut, Lyman, Avdiyivka, and Shakhtarsk in Donetsk, as well as on Kupyansk in the northeastern Kharkiv region, the General Staff of the Ukrainian military said in its daily report.
"During the past 24 hours, the Ukrainian military repelled about 90 attacks by Russian forces in five directions [in the Donetsk region], where they are concentrating their main offensive efforts," the General Staff said.
"At the same time, the enemy launched 10 missile and 19 air strikes as well as 37 rocket-system salvoes. Once again, peaceful towns, villages, and civilians suffered."
The Donetsk city of Bakhmut, which Russian troops have been trying to capture since July, remains the epicenter of the battle for the Donbas, with Moscow's forces launching a fresh offensive to take the city last month.
However, military analysts say that the capture of Bakhmut would have a rather symbolic meaning for Russia, since its strategic importance is limited.
The British Defense Ministry said in its daily intelligence bulletin on February 23 that intense fighting has been continuing in and around Bakhmut for the past two days but that Ukrainian forces have been able to keep their resupply lines open to the west in spite of the Russians' six-week efforts to encircle the city.
British intelligence also noted that Russian forces have resumed the heavy shelling of the Donetsk town of Vuhledar.
"There is a realistic possibility that Russia is preparing for another offensive effort in this area despite costly failed attacks in early February and late 2022," British intelligence concluded.