Ukraine vows no Surrender, Kremlin issues Nuke Threat on 1,000th Day of War

The grim anniversary opened with an overnight Russian strike in the eastern Ukrainian region of Sumy that gutted a Soviet-era residential building and killed at least nine people, including a child.

President Volodymyr Zelensky published images of rescue workers hauling bodies from the debris and called on Kiev's allies to "force" the Kremlin into peace.

The foreign ministry echoed Zelensky's comments in a statement marking the anniversary by calling on allies to ramp up their military support to bring about a "sustainable" end to the war.

"Ukraine will never submit to the occupiers, and the Russian military will be punished for violating international law," the ministry said.

"We need peace through strength, not appeasement," the ministry added, referring to growing calls for Ukraine to sit down at the negotiating table with Russia to end the war.

The Kremlin also vowed to defeat Ukraine.

"The military operation against Kiev continues ... and will be completed," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters, using Russia's preferred language for its invasion.

The comments came as Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree broadening the scope for when Moscow will consider using nuclear weapons in a clear warning to the West and Ukraine.

"Aggression by a non-nuclear state with the participation of a nuclear state is considered as a joint attack," Kremlin spokesman Peskov said.

"It was necessary to bring our principles in line with the current situation," Peskov added, calling the update a "very important" document that should be "studied" abroad.

Russia "has always viewed nuclear weapons as a means of deterrence," he said, adding that they would only be deployed if Russia felt "forced" to respond.

Putin has issued a string of nuclear threats throughout the almost three-year campaign against Ukraine, triggering concern in the West over rhetoric it has slammed as reckless.

The new doctrine also allows Moscow to unleash a nuclear response in the event of a "massive" air attack, even if it only uses conventional weapons.

When the Kremlin first unveiled the proposed changes in September, Peskov called it a "warning" against anybody who was thinking about participating "in an attack on our country by various means, not necessarily nuclear".

Moscow's nuclear umbrella will also be extended to its close ally Belarus under the new doctrine.

Speaking on the 1,000th day of the conflict, Peskov said the "collective West" had unleashed a "war" against Russia, pledging that Moscow would see what it calls its "special military operation" through to the end.

Source. HDN