Watching President Zelenskyy and first lady Olena Zelenska in the centre of Kyiv lead a minute’s silence to honour the tens of thousands of soldiers who have died on the fourth anniversary of the Ukraine war was a sobering moment.
European prime ministers and dignitaries had come to Maidan Square in Kyiv as an act of solidarity and remembrance as they set candles in front of the sea of crosses, photos and flags that now adorn this makeshift memorial for those killed in this conflict.
But equally, there is an acknowledgement from those gathered that when it comes to this war, there is no end in sight: the leaders who arrived in Ukraine to mark this anniversary expect to be coming back next year, too.
For Yvette Cooper, the foreign secretary, the trip was a moment to focus not just on sanctions, weapon supplies and territory, but to try to highlight the war Vladimir Putin is waging against women and children in Ukraine as he wages a “war on Ukrainian culture”.
“I think one of the things that’s been clearly happening, the way that so many children have been stolen, the ways in which, in the temporarily occupied territories, they are trying to change the education system, trying to choke out the Ukrainian language,” she said.
“It’s an attempt really, not just about territory, but to have a war on Ukrainian families, to have war on Ukraine history and culture and identity,” the foreign secretary told me in an interview in Kyiv.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy and his wife, Olena Zelenska. Pic: Ritzau Scanpix/Reuters
But even as she arrived in Ukraine, issues at home plaguing the government and her foreign office brief were dominating the agenda, with the former US ambassador that she sacked, Peter Mandelson, arrested and taken in for hours of questioning by the police as Ms Cooper took an overnight train to Ukraine.
The foreign secretary, who sacked the ambassador just days into her job in September, reiterated her position that Lord Mandelson “should never have been appointed” and, in a rare flash of emotion, told me that “vile” emails were exchanged between Lord Mandelson and paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein.
In one of the emails released by the US Department of Justice, Epstein replies to Lord Mandelson asking how being free from jail felt, by saying “she feels fresh, firm and creamy”. Lord Mandelson replied by calling Epstein a “naughty boy”.
“That’s just vile,” she told me. “It makes me feel so angry.”
“I’ve been really clear, Peter Mandelson should never have been appointed as ambassador to the US and I think some of what has been so, so deeply frustrating about all of this is that really at the heart of all of these should be the victims of Epstein, they’re women and and children who faced the most horrendous criminal exploitation trafficking and that really should be the focus.
“As you know, when I was home secretary, I made it a mission for the government to halve violence against women and girls over the next 10 years.
“That’s a strategy now that the prime minister has championed. And now, as foreign secretary, I am making tackling violence against women and girls something that is an international theme for us as well.”
On that issue, Ms Cooper used her time in Ukraine to meet female victims of Russian aggression and sexual violence and the “voices for children” charity with Olena Zelenska to highlight the plight of thousands of children stolen from their Ukrainian families by Russia.
Yevgen Zakharov, a civil rights activist working at the Civil Liberties Centre, told the foreign secretary on her visit there that Putin “wants to eliminate Ukrainian identity”.
“This is his crazy idea, a genocidal intent is there,” he said.
Throughout these visits, we heard stories of women in Russian-occupied territory being beaten, sexually abused, falsely imprisoned and sent to Labour camps.
Elena Jagapova spoke of how she was taped to a chair, beaten until bloodied, sexually abused and sent to a labour camp. Another, Julia, told us of how her children – then 10 and 17 – were abducted by the Russians, and her 19-month battle to get them back.
Ms Zelenska says more than 20,000 Ukrainian children have been stolen by the Russians as part of their campaign to eradicate Ukrainian culture, through repressing the language, forcing indoctrination and trying to brainwash children.
“We heard stories not just of torture, but also of this attempt to really destroy Ukrainian culture and identity as well,” said Ms Cooper.
“That’s why it’s so important that we provide support for Ukrainian families, support for Ukrainian services but, also, make sure that you could have the kind of special tribunal, the kind of court processes, international court processes, that can pursue exactly those questions and can make sure that there is some justice and accountability.”
Ukrainians visiting the graves of their relatives in Lviv, western Ukraine. Pic: Reuters
The UK has made it clear to Ukraine that it will play a part in helping set up war crime courts when this conflict finally ends, in echoes of Britain’s role in the Nuremberg trials that punctuated the Second World War.
But when that moment comes is hard to see. Those who gathered in Ukraine on Tuesday did so with a weariness that has come to characterise an attritional war in which Russia isn’t winning, but neither is it defeated, as Europe and the US give enough support for Ukraine to fight on, without the firepower – or sanctions against Russia – for it to truly succeed.
Mr Zelenskyy warned on the eve of the fourth anniversary that Putin had already started World War Three and Ukraine was the outpost, the frontline pushing Putin back.
Ms Cooper doesn’t want to use that language, but she does acknowledge that Russian aggression is here to stay, and allies must support Ukraine for however long it takes.
To that end, the UK introduced another sanctions package on Tuesday, and is pushing the US and Europe about a maritime services ban to make it much harder for Russia’s shadow fleet to transport Russian oil.
The frustration is that the US, in trying to pursue peace talks – and reportedly in favour of Russian demand that Ukraine cede the 20% of the Donbas territory not under Russian occupation as part of any truce, is reluctant to squeeze Russia economically right now.
So this war grinds on. For the Ukrainians and allies, one glimmer of hope is that Russia is now losing more men that it can mobilise on the battlefield.
Ukraine hopes that if it can increase the casualty rate to 50,000 Russians a month, then Putin might be forced to consider conscription, which could prove politically difficult and begin to stall his momentum.
That Russia has sacrificed an estimated 500,000 lives in order to gain less than one per cent of Ukraine’s territory tells of the attritional war in which these two sides are locked – and with the horrific loss of life.
In the meantime, Britain and Europe will try to put more pressure on the US to bring in more aggressive sanctions against Russia, to financially starve Putin’s war machine.
But for all the signs of solidarity on Tuesday, there is little to show in the way of concrete steps to peace. Ukraine hopes for a game changer in the coming months, but is reconciled to more anniversaries like today.
