Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Thursday said he was confident of victory in the face of Russia’s invasion as he honoured a new holiday marking the country’s statehood.

It was a troubled morning with missile terror, but Ukraine would not give up, Mr Zelensky announced in Kyiv on Thursday.

He congratulated citizens on the first-ever Ukrainian Statehood Day, celebrated alongside Independence Day on August 24.

“Ukraine is an independent, free and indivisible state, and it will be so forever,” Mr Zelensky said.

He published an emotional video about the country’s struggle against the Russian occupiers.

The president said the country was fighting for its freedom.

Earlier, pro-Russian eastern Ukrainian separatist leader, Denis Pushilin, said it was time to take the cities of Kharkiv, Odesa and Kyiv.

In the war, which has entered its sixth month, Mr Zelensky said Ukraine has so far lost control of about 20 per cent of its territory.

He called for more heavy weapons from the West to stop Russian attacks and liberate occupied territories.

With the new holiday Mr Zelensky set last year, Ukraine was also countering Russia’s claim that it was not a real state but an artificial entity.

Mr Zelensky had repeatedly and firmly rejected this.

Last year, for example, he declared that Orthodox Christianity was spread from Kyiv more than 1,000 years ago.

In Kyiv, Grand Prince Volodymyr (Vladimir) declared Christianity the form of government on July 28, 988.

In the past, Russians and Ukrainians had celebrated it together.

The Russian parliament also elevated the day to a national day of commemoration in 2010.

The anniversary of Christianisation was already a legal commemoration day in Ukraine, but not a day off.

(dpa/NAN)