From now on, daily minute of silence in Ukraine for war dead

Ukraine will now hold a minute of silence every day for the victims of the Russian invasion. Ukrainian President Volodimir Zelensky wants every morning at 9 a.m. local time to commemorate the Ukrainians “who gave their lives”, both soldiers and civilians.

The minute is for “everyone who could have been alive if Russia had not started this war,” the 44-year-old leader said in a video message posted on social media.

He called Russia a terrorist state that should become an international pariah. “The Russian state has turned into an open terrorist and is not ashamed of it,” Zelensky said. He also pointed to kidnappings of mayors and deputies in the Russian-occupied territories and to a hostage situation of hundreds of workers in a hospital in the besieged port city of Mariupol.