They celebrate national holiday and fear the "nasty Russian provocation"

They celebrate national holiday and fear the "nasty Russian provocation"

That holiday, which "marks" six months after the start of the Russian invasion on February 24, will be celebrated without organized festivities and under the threat of land, air and sea attacks, reports Reuters.

Ukraine fears that today, on Independence Day, Russia will carry out the most brutal attacks since the beginning of the conflict. Larger celebrations have been canceled in almost all cities, and President Volodymyr Zelensky has warned that Ukraine will respond strongly if Russia steps up its attacks.

The most feared is Kyiv, where all large public events and gatherings are prohibited. The measure came into force on Monday and will last until Thursday.

Leonid Kravchuk, the leader of the Soviet Republic of Ukraine, declared independence from the Soviet Union in 1991, and in the referendum and presidential elections, Ukrainians supported independence and elected Kravchuk as president.

Public gatherings are banned today in the capital Kyiv on the occasion of this anniversary, and a curfew is in effect on the front line in Kharkiv, a city in the east of the country that has been under shelling for months, according to the British agency.

Ukrainian authorities have displayed the wreckage of burnt-out Russian tanks and armored vehicles as war trophies in central Kyiv, in a show of defiance. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky yesterday warned of the possibility of "a nasty Russian provocations," and authorities called on people to take warnings about airstrikes seriously.

"We are fighting against the most terrible threat to our statehood at the same time when we have achieved the highest level of national unity," Zelensky said in his evening address.

Earlier on Tuesday, he told representatives of about 60 countries and international organizations attending a virtual summit on Crimea, that Kyiv will expel Russian forces from the peninsula by any means, without prior consultation with other countries.

During the war in Ukraine, thousands of civilians were killed, a third of Ukraine's 41 million inhabitants were forced to leave their homes, many cities were turned into ruins, and world markets were shaken by the conflict, according to Reuters.

Ukraine's armed forces have said nearly 9.000 soldiers have been killed in the war so far, while Russia has not disclosed its losses, but US intelligence estimates 15.000 Russian soldiers have been killed in what Moscow calls a "special military operation" of Ukraine's "denazification".