Ukraine vows no surrender, Kremlin issues nuke threat on 1,000th day of war

In this photo released by Russian Defense Ministry Press Service on Tuesday, Nov. 19, 2024, a Russian Uragan self-propelled multiple rocket launcher fires towards Ukrainian positions from an undisclosed location in Ukraine. (Russian Defense Ministry Press Service via AP)

Ukraine said Tuesday that its forces would never surrender to Russia, 1,000 days after Moscow launched its brutal invasion, while the Kremlin also pledged victory and escalated its nuclear saber-rattling.

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...