Freedom and Father's Day: Zelensky honors dads who fight for Ukraine

While several countries across the globe celebrate Father’s Day the holiday is a tough one in Ukraine where many fathers are fighting for their families, freedom and their very lives.

Men of fighting age have been restricted from exiting the country, and many have been mobilized to defend their nation from Russia’s illegal invasion. Thousands of families have fled the country while fathers and husbands have stayed behind to fight the invading enemy

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and his close aides say up to 200 Ukrainian troops are being killed each day.

To show his gratitude and lift the spirits of the Ukrainian freedom fighters, President Volodymyr Zelensky sent out a thank you wartime Father’s Day message.

The Ukrainian president who has a daughter, 17-year old Oleksandra and a nine-year old son, Kyrylo, honored fathers who “defend” their homeland.

“Being a father is a great responsibility and a great happiness,” the world renown freedom fighter said Sunday in an Instagram post. “It is strength, wisdom, motivation to go forward and not to give up. And no matter how difficult it is — to protect and defend the most precious. Thank you, our heroes.”

In a recent April interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper at the Ukrainian presidential palace in Kyiv, Zelensky spoke about Oleksandra and mused that “without knocking [on] the door, I can’t speak with my daughter.”

Zelensky said he wanted his children to remember him as “a human being that loved life to the fullest, and loved his family, and loved his motherland — definitely not a hero.”

His Father’s Day post included photos of Ukrainians serving their country. In some of the photos fathers were depicted sending their children off on trains for their safety.

“One photograph shows a kneeling soldier kissing a child inside a subway station, where Ukrainian families shelter from Russian airstrikes. In another, an infant and a woman who appears on the brink of tears look out from a departing train car as a man peers inside, his hand spread across the window in a gesture of goodbye,” reported the Los Angeles Times.

On June 15, the Department of Defense announced $1 billion in additional security assistance for Ukraine that included an authorization of a Presidential Drawdown of security assistance valued up to $350 million as well as $650 million in Ukraine Security Initiative (USAI) funds.

The Ukrainian government also sent out well wishes to its troops.

“On Father’s Day, we wish all the soldiers of Ukraine to return home as soon as possible with victory,” a post from Ukraine’s Interior Ministry said.