Zelenskyy: Putin Talked Greatness for 27 Years—Now Russia is Queuing for Gas

Ukraine will not surrender its territory to Russia or ease the enormous military cost Moscow is paying for its invasion, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a defiant Independence Day address on August 24.

Zelenskyy rejected the idea that handing over Donbas could quickly end Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine, arguing that the Kremlin continues to misjudge both Ukraine’s willingness and its ability to resist.

“Putin is stuck in the past. He still looks at an old-style Ukraine—one that will stay silent, swallow it, endure it,” Zelenskyy said.

“That Ukraine exists nowhere anymore, except in his ‘little folders of reports.’ Our state has long been different. Not an observer, but a player. Not a victim, but a fighter.”

The Ukrainian leader said Kyiv would not allow Russia to regain the initiative or convince Ukraine’s partners that territorial concessions could provide a shortcut to peace.

“We will not let them seize the initiative, deceive Europe and the entire world into thinking that they simply need to give up Donbas, and everything will be over soon,” the President said.

Zelenskyy said there were no grounds for trusting such Russian promises and made clear that Ukraine would continue resisting rather than effectively rescuing Moscow from further battlefield losses.

“We have no illusions. We don’t trust them. We are not going to save the Kremlin half a million soldiers,” according to Zelenskyy.

He pointed to Russia’s repeatedly delayed ambitions to capture the entirety of Ukraine’s Donetsk region as evidence that Moscow’s military plans continue to fall short of its own timelines.

“Russia keeps pushing back the dates when they will ‘definitely, any day now, take the entire Donetsk region.’ It will keep pushing those dates back. Ukraine is different, and it does not give away what is its own,” he stated.

Zelenskyy also said Russia was preparing for another wave of mobilization rather than genuinely seeking an end to the war. For Ukraine, he said, the response must be to strengthen its military and ensure frontline troops have the weapons and equipment necessary to maintain the defense.

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“We have to strengthen our military, have everything needed to hold our defense. Our warriors must be supplied and equipped with everything so that the replenishment of the enemy army can be turned into fertilizer for our soil.”

Zelenskyy ended his Independence Day address by directly challenging the expectations of Russian leader Vladimir Putin and contrasting Moscow’s original ambitions with the losses Russia has suffered during more than four years of full-scale war.

“Putin hopes that we are tired. But we know that he is mortal. He never understood us. Now he will not have time to. You wanted to take all our Ukraine, all our land; instead, you lost your oil refineries, your fleet, your profits, your entire generation that you sent into the meat grinder. You wanted us erased from the map; now you are absent from the international agenda of the future civilization,” he said.

Zelenskyy also pointed out the image of power the Kremlin has spent decades trying to project.

“For 27 years, the head of Russia has talked about greatness, while Russia is standing in lines for gasoline,” he concluded.

Earlier, reports emerged that fuel availability at Russian gas stations has plunged sharply, with gasoline reportedly available at only 28.1% of stations nationwide as authorities open dozens of antitrust cases against oil companies and independent fuel operators.

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