World Leaders Rally Behind Ukraine as War Enters 5th Year

A makeshift memorial to fallen Ukrainian and foreign soldiers in Independence Square in Kyiv on Feb. 23, 2026. Henry Nicholls/AFP via Getty Images

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and world leaders marked the fourth year of the war in Ukraine on Feb. 24 as the fighting on the battlefield continues.

“Today marks exactly four years since [Russian President Vladimir] Putin started his three-day push to take Kyiv. And that says a great deal about our resistance, about how Ukraine has fought all this time,” Zelenskyy wrote in a Feb. 24 post on X. “Behind those words stand millions of our people, immense courage, incredibly hard work, endurance, and the long path Ukraine has been pursuing since February 24.”