ANKARA / ISTANBUL

Ukraine wants peace and puts efforts to establish peace in the entire region, said the Ukrainian ambassador to Ankara on Saturday.

“We want peace and we are working to establish this peace in our entire region. However, everyone must understand that unless the criminals are punished and a fair peace is achieved, unfortunately, there will be no peace in our region,” Vasyl Bodnar said on the second anniversary of the Russia-Ukraine war.

Stressing that Ukraine has resisted for two years, he said it will resist even more and will win eventually.

Bodnar said their struggle continues, thanks to "friends and international partners like Türkiye.”

Türkiye provides humanitarian aid to the Ukrainian people and hosts Ukrainian citizens and Ukrainian orphans, he added.

Ukrainian citizens living in the Turkish metropolis of Istanbul gathered on Saturday to protest the second year of Russia's war on Ukraine.

Ukrainians gathered in Odakule Square in Beyoglu district and opened banners with pictures of children and soldiers killed in the war.

Roman Nedilskyi, Ukraine's consul-general in Istanbul, said they will continue fighting until they achieve victory against Russia.

“We have been fighting for two years and we are surviving. We will continue to resist,” he said, and thanked Türkiye for its support.

Aliya Usenova, the vice president of the Ukrainian Cultural Association, said the war started 10 years ago when Russians occupied Crimea.

Noting that this war spread throughout Ukraine two years ago, she said the Russian side declared those who opposed them as terrorists and tried to destroy them.

Russia launched its "special military operation" on Ukraine exactly two years ago, on Feb. 24, 2022.

*Writing by Gozde Bayar