Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy made a rare acknowledgement of setbacks on Sunday, saying 31,000 Ukrainian soldiers had been killed in the war and that plans for last summer's failed counter-offensive had been leaked to Russia.
Mr Zelenskyy said his country's victory depends on support from the West and expressed hope that the US would approve a package of military aid.
At a forum marking the second anniversary of Russia's invasion, he appealed to the West to boost Ukraine's war chances.
"Whether Ukraine will lose, whether it will be very difficult for us, and whether there will be a large number of casualties depends on you, on our partners, on the western world," Mr Zelenskyy said.
Ukraine has in recent weeks been weakened by an ammunition shortage, with a much-needed $60 billion US aid package blocked by political wrangling in the US Congress.
"There is hope for Congress, and I am sure that it is going to be positive," Mr Zelenskyy said.
Ukraine has for months said that western aid is too slow in coming and that the hold-ups have real consequences as the war against Russia enters its third year.
Mr Zelenskyy for the first time suggested that Russia had prior information on the country's much-anticipated but unsuccessful counter-offensive last summer.
"Action plans were on the Kremlin's table before the counter-offensive actions began," said the president, who this month sacked the army's commander-in-chief, Valery Zaluzhny.
But Mr Zelenskyy said Ukraine's war losses were much lower than Russia has claimed.
"Thirty-one thousand Ukrainian soldiers have died in this war, not 300,000 or 150,000, or whatever Putin and his lying circle are saying," he said.
In December, Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu said 383,000 Ukrainian soldiers had been killed or injured.
Second anniversary of the Russia-Ukraine war marked around the world - in pictures
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Local residents attend a memorial ceremony under a destroyed bridge in Irpin, Kyiv, on the second anniversary of Russia's invasion of Ukraine. AFP -
Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Italy's Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and Belgium's Prime Minister Alexander De Croo attend a wreath-lying ceremony at the Memory Wall of Fallen Defenders of Ukraine in Kyiv. AFP -
A woman reacts next to flags bearing symbols and colours of Ukraine set to commemorate fallen Ukrainian army soldiers at Independence Square in Kyiv. AFP -
A person waves a Ukrainian flag in Berlin. Reuters -
The Eiffel Tower is lit in the colours of Ukrainian flag in Paris. AFP -
The Chain Bridge is illuminated with the colours of Ukraine to mark the second anniversary of Russia's invasion of the country in Budapest, Hungary. AFP -
Ukrainian citizen and anti-war activists holding Moldovan and Ukrainian flags at a protest in front of the Russian embassy, in Chisinau, Moldova. EPA -
Ukrainians and their supporters carry a huge Ukrainian flag during a rally at the National Mall near the Lincoln Memorial in Washington. AP -
Ukraine's national flower, the sunflower, placed amid a crowd in Times Square. Getty Images -
People attend a protest to mark the two-year anniversary of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, at the Old Town Square in Prague, Czech Republic. Reuters -
Pro-Ukraine demonstrators take part in a rally commemorating the second anniversary of the Russian invasion of Ukraine at the Obelisk in Buenos Aires. AFP -
People attend a demonstration to mark the second anniversary of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, in Madrid, Spain. Reuters -
The Frankfurt Europe Tower in the colours of the Ukrainian flag as a sign of solidarity with the people suffering from the war in Ukraine. AP -
Paper angels displayed as people attend a prayer service at the Ukrainian Catholic Cathedral in London, UK. Getty Images -
A dog wearing a jacket with the slogan "UK Dogs Back Ukraine" at a vigil in Trafalgar Square, in London. AFP -
The Place du Capitole illuminated in the colours of the Ukrainian flag to mark the second anniversary of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, in Toulouse. AFP
The second anniversary of the war was marked around the world with moving tributes.
During a Sunday service in the Vatican, Pope Francis called for intensified efforts to find a "just and lasting peace".
"There have been so many victims, so many wounded, so much destruction, so much anguish and so many tears over what has become a terribly long period, the end of which we cannot yet foresee," he said.
But the focus in Kyiv was on shoring up western support.
Ukrainian Defence Minister Rustem Umerov said earlier on Sunday that half of western military aid to Kyiv was delivered later than promised, causing losses.
Europe has admitted it will fall far short of a plan to deliver more than one million artillery shells to the country by March, instead hoping to complete the shipments by the end of the year.
Such delays meant Kyiv would "lose people, lose territories", especially given Russia's "air superiority", said Mr Umerov.
"We do everything possible and impossible but without timely supply it harms us," he said.
US President Joe Biden has said the hold-ups directly contributed to Ukraine being forced to withdraw from the frontline town of Avdiivka earlier in February, giving Russia its first territorial gain in almost a year.
Mr Zelenskyy pressed G7 leaders on Saturday to ensure the fast delivery of weapons, telling them: "Putin can lose this war" and "we will win".
But after a year of static frontlines, Russia has in recent weeks been seeking to press its advantage on the battlefield and try to advance beyond Avdiivka.
"Despite the difficult situation, our soldiers courageously hold their lines and positions," Ukraine's commander-in-chief, Oleksandr Syrsky, said on Sunday after visiting frontline command posts.
Russia marked the start of the war's third year with a wave of overnight missile and drone attacks.
A missile strike on the eastern city of Kostyantynivka wounded one, and destroyed the railway station, which is not in use, and dozens of apartments, shops and administrative buildings, Ukrainian authorities said.
Explosives dropped by a Russian drone killed a man, 57, in Nikopol, across the Dnipro River from the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, captured by Russia at the start of the war.
Mr Umerov said Russia had fired more than 8,000 missiles at his country since the start of the invasion, at an average of more than 10 a day.
Visiting the southern city of Mykolaiv, Annalena Baerbock, Germany's Foreign Minister, pledged another €100 million ($108 million) in humanitarian aid to Kyiv.
"We should not minimise this aid as being in vain. It saves lives every day," Ms Baerbock said, standing in front of a building destroyed by Russian strikes on the city.
French President Emmanuel Macron will on Monday host a summit European leaders at the Elysees Palace in Paris to try to strengthen western support for Ukraine.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Polish President Andrzej Duda will be among about 20 European leaders attending the conference, which will open with a video address from Mr Zelenskyy.
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A soldier of the Ukrainian National Guard holds his position in the Serebryan Forest, in temperatures of -15°C in January 2024, in Kreminna, Donetsk Oblast. Getty Images -
Classmates play with rifles made from Lego blocks after school, in Vysokopillya, December 2023. Getty Images -
Leonid, a 38-year-old Ukrainian soldier suffering from severe mental trauma, cranial trauma and shrapnel wounds, does his physical training session at a psychiatric hospital in Kyiv, in October 2023. Getty Images -
Gravediggers make new graves for the victims of a recent Russian missile strike, at Hroza cemetery, in October 2023. Getty Images -
Oleksander, suffering from a hand injury, relaxes during a speleotherapy session, an alternative medicine respiratory therapy, at a rehabilitation center for soldiers in Kyiv, in October 2023. Getty Images -
Volodymyr assists his wife Anastasia, as she has contractions before the birth of their first baby, at a maternity hospital in Zaporizhzhia, in September 2023. Ukraine’s birth rate since the start of the war the country's birth rate has plummeted by 28 per cent. Getty Images -
Friends and relatives mourn the death of fighter pilot Andrii Pilshchykov, 30, who was killed along with two other pilots in a mid-air plane crash in Kyiv, in August 2023. Getty Images -
Ukrainian recruits salute the flag as they attend a commemorative service marking Ukraine's Independence Day, in August 2023, in a training camp in the south of England. Getty Images -
Damage from a missile that hit the Chernihiv Regional Academic Ukrainian Music and Drama Theatre, killilng seven people, in August 2023. Getty Images -
Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelenskyy and Nato Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg speak to the media at the Nato Summit in July 2023, in Vilnius, Lithuania. Getty Images -
People wait for a transfer on a pontoon in a flooded area as the result of the Kakhovka dam destruction in June 2023 in Afanasiivka village, Mykolaiv region. Getty Images -
State workers and Ukrainian military personnel inspect the crater left behind by a missile strike in Dnipro, in May 2023. Getty Images -
A grad missile is launched on the Donetsk fron tline in April 2023. Getty Images -
A Ukrainian sniper with the 28th Brigade moves to a fighting position in a front-line trench facing Russian troops in March 2023 outside of Bakhmut. Getty Images -
A damaged bust of Vladimir Lenin lies in the street in March 2023 in in the strategic town of Lyman. Getty Images -
A member of Ukraine's 79th Air Assault Brigade fires a rocket-propelled grenade at Russian positions near Marinka in February 2023. Reuters -
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy addresses MPs in Westminster Hall, London, in February 2023. Getty Images -
Destroyed buildings 32km west of the front lines in Donetsk in January 2023. Getty Images -
An anti-aircraft gun in January 2023 fires at Russian positions near Bakhmut, Donetsk. Reuters -
Destruction in the village of Bohorodychne, Donetsk, in January 2023. AFP -
A Ukrainian artilleryman discards an empty shell on the outskirts of Bakhmut, eastern Ukraine, in December 2022. AFP -
Children receive presents from a Ukrainian soldier dressed as Santa on Christmas Eve 2022 in Sloviansk. Getty Images -
More than 1,000 missiles and rockets fired by Russian forces collected for cataloguing in Kharkiv in December 2022. Getty Images -
The Metro provides shelter as Russia launches another missile attack on Kyiv, Ukraine's capital, in December 2022. Getty Images -
Children at a PE class in Kyiv after Russia abandoned its attempt to seize the capital in November 2022. Getty Images -
A sniper searches for Russian positions on the bank of the Dnipro river in Kherson in November 2022. Getty Images -
Graffiti by Banksy on a wall among the debris in Borodyanka in November 2022. Getty Images -
Ukrainian flags flutter around graves in a cemetery for soldiers killed in action in Kharkiv in October 2022. Getty Images -
Parts of a drone, which Ukrainian authorities said was Iranian-made, after a Russian strike in Kyiv in October 2022. Reuters -
An elderly woman is helped across a damaged bridge in Bakhmut in October 2022. Getty Images -
Fuel tanks ablaze on damaged sections of the Kerch bridge in Crimea, in October 2022. Reuters -
A destroyed bridge makes crossing the Donets river difficult, in Staryi Saltiv, east of Kharkiv, in September 2022. AFP -
Firefighters at a thermal power plant in Kharkiv damaged by a Russian missile strike in September 2022. Reuters -
Ukrainian soldier Oleksandr with his daughter Nikole at Lviv railway station in August 2022. Getty Images -
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and then-British prime minister Boris Johnson read a plaque in Kyiv in August 2022 dedicated to the latter for his support. Getty Images -
Destroyed Russian military equipment on Khreshchatyk street in Kyiv. The materiel was turned into an open-air military museum ahead of Ukraine's Independence Day on August 24. AFP -
Shakhtar Donetsk v Metalist Kharkiv kicks off the Ukrainian Premier League season in August 2022 amid fears of bomb and missile alerts. EPA -
Ukrainian servicemen fire an American-made 155mm M777 howitzer in July 2022 in the Kharkiv area. EPA -
A bomb crater on the Antonovsky bridge across the Dnipro river in Kherson, July 2022. AFP -
Maksym and Andrii with plastic guns at a 'checkpoint' they set up while playing in Kharkiv, July 2022. AP -
Ukrainian troops on Snake Island in June 2022. Reuters -
A woman evacuated from an area of conflict in June 2022 contemplates what the next move might be. AP -
Romanian President Klaus Iohannis, Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz in Kyiv in June 2022. Getty Images -
Graves in Irpin cemetery, May 2022. Getty Images -
A Ukrainian soldier trapped within the besieged Azovstal Iron and Steel Works complex in Mariupol in May 2022. Reuters -
The wreckage of a Russian helicopter in a bomb-cratered field in Biskvitne, May 2022. Getty Images -
A Ukrainian army officer inspects a grain warehouse shelled by Russian forces in May 2022 near Novovorontsovka, Kherson. Getty Images -
A boy from Mariupol arriving at an evacuation point in Zaporizhzhia in May 2022. Getty Images -
A Russian serviceman on guard outside Zaporizhzhia nuclear power station in May 2022. AFP -
Oksana searches for salvageable items on the destroyed second floor of her home in Hostomel, April 2022. Getty Images -
A floral memorial wall in Lviv for Ukrainian civilians killed during the Russian invasion, April 2022. Getty Images -
People fleeing Lviv, eastern Ukraine, in April 2022, wait for a bus that will take them to Poland. Getty Images -
A Russian soldier patrols a bombed Mariupol theatre in April 2022, as Moscow intensified its campaign to take the strategic port city. AFP -
A Ukrainian celebrates success in Hostomel in April 2022. Getty Images -
Julia Palovskaya reads to children during an air raid drill in the basement shelter at a preschool in Lviv, April 2022. Getty Images -
Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Bucha in April 2022, where hundreds of bodies were found in the street and it was claimed the Russian leadership was responsible for killing civilians. AFP -
Oleh Smolin, 23, who suffered leg injuries from Russian shelling in April 2022, in hospital in Chuhuiv. Getty Images -
Fleeing refugees arrive at the border train station of Zahony, Hungary, in March 2022. Getty Images -
A father says goodbye to his daughter on an evacuation train about to leave Odesa in March 2022. AFP -
February 24 will be a year since Russia started the Ukraine war. The National picks out the most powerful images from the conflict. AFP -
Ukrainians under a destroyed bridge as they try to cross the Irpin river on the outskirts of Kyiv in March 2022. AP -
People cram into Kyiv station to catch trains to Poland or to western parts of Ukraine, shortly after the initial invasion in February 2022. Getty Images -
A demonstration in support of Ukraine in Trafalgar Square, London, February 2022 . Getty Images -
Russian army vehicles in Armyansk, Crimea, in February 2022. AFP -
Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Kyiv on February 25, 2022, in a video on Facebook. He said 'we are all here', shortly after the Russian invasion began. AFP -
A residential building damaged by a missile strike in Kyiv in February 2022. Getty Images -
A metro station in Kyiv in February 2022, crowded with people trying to escape the invasion. AFP -
A police officer addresses people gathered to protest against the invasion of Ukraine, in central Saint Petersburg, Russia, February 2022. AFP -
A protester in support of Ukraine, in Berlin, Germany, in February 2022. Getty Images -
Ukrainian soldiers prepare to repel an attack in Ukraine's Lugansk region on February 24, 2022. AFP -
Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Kyiv on February 24, 2022, after Russia launched a full-scale invasion. AFP -
A mass exodus from Kyiv after pre-offensive missile strikes by Russian armed forces on February 24, 2022. Getty Images -
Security personnel inspect the remains of a shell in Kyiv on February 24, 2022, soon after Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a military operation in Ukraine. AFP -
CCTV footage shows Russian military equipment crossing a Crimea border checkpoint on February 24, 2022. AFP -
Russian President Vladimir Putin in the Kremlin early on February 24, 2022, when he announced a 'military operation' in Ukraine. AFP
