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February 16, 2022, Ukraine celebrates the Day of Unity. The holiday was founded by a corresponding decree of President Zelensky in order to strengthen the consolidation of Ukrainian society, strengthen its resilience in the face of growing hybrid threats.
Volodymyr Zelensky noted that this is not the first threat faced by the strong Ukrainian people, which has once again shown their best qualities – unity and the will to win.
“We have been told that February 16 will be the day of the attack, but we will make it the day of unity,” said Zelenskyy on Monday.
“Today, we clearly understand all the challenges we face and what to do about them. We are confident, but not self-confident. We understand all the risks. We are constantly monitoring the situation, working out various scenarios, preparing worthy responses to all possible aggressive actions,” he said.
Zelensky called on the country’s people to fly flags and sing the national anthem in unison on February 16, a date that some Western media say Russian could invade.
UATV editor-in-chief Oleksiy Matsuka visits Mariupol, a Ukrainian frontier city in the Donetsk region to mark the Day of Unity together with the locals. Local residents joined the flashmob with national flags.
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Here is how Odesa, south of Ukraine, celebrates Day of Unity.
In Severodonetsk, a city in the Luhansk, locals carried a 200-meter flag of Ukraine along the central street of the city.
Tensions between Russia-Ukraine and the West escalated over the weekend after Western media reports claimed that Moscow could launch an attack on Ukraine on February 16. Moscow recently amassed 130,000 troops near Ukraine, prompting fears that the Kremlin could be planning another military offensive against Kyiv.
Russia now has 80% of the forces in place that would be needed to begin a full-scale invasion, compared to 70% exactly a week ago. The continuing buildup is one reason the Biden administration is now warning an invasion can come within days. Russia could invade Ukraine at any moment, British foreign minister Liz Truss said following a meeting of the government’s crisis response committee.
