Ukraine leader pledges push for victory on war anniversary

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukraine’s president has pledged to push for victory in 2023 as he and other Ukrainians marked the somber first anniversary of the Russian invasion that he called “the longest day of our lives.” In a defiant video address on Friday, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy recalled the terror unleashed a year ago by the Russian assault that triggered Europe’s biggest and deadliest war since World War II. He said: “We clearly understood that for each tomorrow, you need to fight. And we fought.” Ukrainians wept at memorials for their tens of thousands of dead, a toll growing inexorably as fighting rages in eastern Ukraine in particular.