Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky marked the 35th anniversary of his nation’s independence from the Soviet Union with a stark warning to the Kremlin: Ukraine will not cede land just to spare Russia another wave of casualties, which he characterized as ‘fertilizer for our fields.’
In a 20-minute televised address broadcast nationwide on Monday, Zelensky combined patriotic fervor with a direct challenge to Russian President Vladimir Putin, insisting that Ukraine’s military is now the strongest in Europe and that its people’s resolve far outweighs Russian firepower.
Defiance on Independence Day
Zelensky opened his speech by pivoting from celebration to resolve, asserting that Ukraine’s national spirit makes it ‘100 times stronger than Russian and 100 times stronger than all their tanks on parade.’ The address, delivered as Ukraine marked 35 years since breaking away from Moscow in 1991, was as much a message to the West as it was to the Russian leader.
The president said Putin ‘made a big mistake’ by launching the full-scale invasion in February 2022, and he dismissed any notion that Ukraine should negotiate away territory in exchange for peace. ‘Russia is trying to deceive Europe and the U.S. into believing that if Ukraine surrenders the Donbas, the war will end quickly,’ Zelensky said, according to the address. ‘But Ukraine will not give up its land just to save the Kremlin half a million soldiers.’
He went further, using graphic language to underscore the cost of Russia’s continued aggression. ‘You have lost an entire generation, which you pushed into the meat grinder,’ Zelensky said directly to Putin. ‘The Ukrainian army turns the reinforcement of the Russian army into fertilizer for our fields.’
The toll of war
The president’s reference to ‘half a million’ additional Russian soldiers aligns with recent estimates of the war’s staggering human cost. A study by the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), reported in July, placed total combat casualties across both sides at two million since the invasion began four and a half years ago.
Of that figure, the CSIS analysis attributed roughly 1.4 million casualties to Russian forces, including around 400,000 killed. The remaining one million were listed as wounded or missing. According to the same assessment, the conflict has become the largest for any world power since World War II, with Russian losses exceeding the combined total of all post-1945 conflicts Moscow has been involved in, including the Soviet-Afghan War.
Zelensky’s comments suggest that despite these losses, the Kremlin remains prepared to sustain further attrition, but he insisted Ukraine will not adjust its negotiating stance to accommodate Russian sacrifices.
Military strength and the home front
Beyond the rhetoric, Zelensky sought to project confidence in Ukraine’s military capabilities. He called the Ukrainian army ‘the strongest in Europe, period,’ and boasted of a ‘giant’ domestic defense industry that he said has been critical to sustaining the fight.
He also highlighted Ukraine’s success in degrading Russian naval power, claiming the Russian fleet is being turned into ‘scrap metal’ in the Black Sea. On land, he said, Ukrainian drones are delivering ‘Ukrainian justice’ to Russian forces operating deep in the rear and in occupied territories.
The address did not outline new military commitments or policy changes, but it reinforced Kyiv’s public position: that territorial concessions are off the table regardless of how many troops Moscow is willing to sacrifice.
Zelensky’s remarks come at a moment when Western allies are closely watching both Ukraine’s battlefield performance and Russia’s capacity to absorb losses. The CSIS report underscored the scale of the human cost, noting that Russian casualty figures are so high that they dwarf the country’s losses in every other conflict since 1945.
For now, Zelensky’s message is one of endurance. ‘Putin made a big mistake,’ he repeated, and the anniversary address served as a reminder that Ukraine intends to make that mistake as costly as possible.
Source: www.breitbart.com — https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2026/08/25/zelensky-tells-putin-ukrainian-army-turning-russian-soldiers-into-fertilizer/