By Olena Harmash&nbsp;and&nbsp;Max Hunder
KYIV (Reuters) -&nbsp;Ukrainians&nbsp;paid&nbsp;tribute&nbsp;to their&nbsp;fallen&nbsp;loved&nbsp;ones&nbsp;on&nbsp;Friday&nbsp;and&nbsp;vowed&nbsp;to&nbsp;fight&nbsp;on to&nbsp;victory,&nbsp;while&nbsp;Russia&nbsp;said&nbsp;its&nbsp;forces&nbsp;were&nbsp;making&nbsp;gains&nbsp;in&nbsp;battle&nbsp;in the&nbsp;east&nbsp;as&nbsp;its&nbsp;invasion&nbsp;entered&nbsp;a&nbsp;second&nbsp;year&nbsp;with no&nbsp;end&nbsp;in&nbsp;sight.
&nbsp;&nbsp; At a ceremony on Kyiv's St Sophia Square, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy bestowed medals to a soldier on crutches&nbsp;and&nbsp;the mother of one killed,&nbsp;and&nbsp;held back tears when a band&nbsp;played the national anthem.
"We have become one family. There are no more strangers among us.&nbsp;Ukrainians&nbsp;today are all fellows.&nbsp;Ukrainians&nbsp;have sheltered&nbsp;Ukrainians, opened their homes&nbsp;and&nbsp;hearts to those who&nbsp;were&nbsp;forced to flee the war," Zelenskiy&nbsp;said&nbsp;in a television address.
"We withstand&nbsp;all threats, shelling, cluster bombs, cruise missiles, kamikaze drones, blackouts&nbsp;and&nbsp;cold. We are stronger than that," he&nbsp;said. "We&nbsp;were&nbsp;not defeated.&nbsp;And&nbsp;we will do everything to gain&nbsp;victory&nbsp;this&nbsp;year!"
Zelenskiy was due later to attend&nbsp;an online summit with U.S. President Joe Biden&nbsp;and&nbsp;other leaders of the Group of Seven wealthy democracies, expected to denounce the war, pledge more support for Ukraine&nbsp;and&nbsp;tighten financial sanctions against&nbsp;Russia.
For ordinary&nbsp;Ukrainians&nbsp;who have spent much of the&nbsp;year&nbsp;hiding in bomb shelters&nbsp;and&nbsp;supporting the war effort any way they can, the anniversary meant reflection.
"I buried my son who died in military service. I also buried my husband. I think it's very clear to you, I'm on my own now&nbsp;and&nbsp;it's very, very hard,"&nbsp;said&nbsp;Valentyna Krysan, 75, a shop employee in Kyiv. "I wish you a nice, peaceful day,&nbsp;and&nbsp;that such a thing will never repeat in your lives."
BLUE&nbsp;AND&nbsp;YELLOW FLAGS
Allies around the world showed their support. Paris lit up the Eiffel Tower in the Ukrainian flag colours of blue&nbsp;and&nbsp;yellow. In London, where the street outside the&nbsp;Russian embassy was painted blue&nbsp;and&nbsp;yellow, people draped in Ukrainian flags with hands on their hearts gathered at a vigil holding a banner: "If you stand&nbsp;for freedom, stand&nbsp;for Ukraine".
"There will be a life after this war, because Ukraine willwin," Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo&nbsp;said&nbsp;in a speech.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, in a video message, hailed "the determination&nbsp;and&nbsp;courage of the&nbsp;Ukrainians, how they defend&nbsp;their freedom. Germany supports them in this - as strongly&nbsp;and&nbsp;as long as necessary".
There&nbsp;were&nbsp;no major public events to mark the anniversary on&nbsp;Friday&nbsp;in&nbsp;Russia, which set off fireworks on Thursday for the annual "Defenders of the Fatherland" holiday&nbsp;and&nbsp;held a pop concert on Wednesday attended by President Vladimir Putin.
Tens of thousands of Ukrainian civilians are feared to have have been killed along with many more soldiers on both sides since Putin ordered the&nbsp;invasion&nbsp;a&nbsp;year&nbsp;ago, saying it was necessary to protect&nbsp;Russia's security.
Ukraine sees it as a brazen bid to subjugate an independent state.&nbsp;Its&nbsp;outnumbered&nbsp;and&nbsp;outgunned&nbsp;forces&nbsp;repelled&nbsp;Russia's attempt to seize the capital Kyiv early in the war&nbsp;and&nbsp;later recaptured swathes of occupied territory. But Moscow still occupies nearly a fifth of Ukraine which it claims to have annexed.
Russian troops have destroyed Ukrainian towns&nbsp;and&nbsp;cities, sent one-third of the population fleeing&nbsp;and&nbsp;left streets filled with corpses in towns they have occupied&nbsp;and&nbsp;lost. Moscow denies war crimes.
In recent weeks,&nbsp;Russian&nbsp;forces, replenished with hundreds of thousands of conscripts in the first mobilisation since World War Two, have launched a winter offensive of intense trench warfare,&nbsp;making&nbsp;only small&nbsp;gains&nbsp;despite&nbsp;fighting that both sides say has been the bloodiest of the war.
NO PEACE
There is no sign of any peace process. Putin says he is battling the combined might of the West in what he now depicts as a&nbsp;fight&nbsp;for&nbsp;Russia's survival. Kyiv says there can be no peace until&nbsp;Russia&nbsp;withdraws.
In the latest reports from the&nbsp;battlefield,&nbsp;Russia's Wagner private army, run by a Putin ally who has quarrelled with the regular military brass, claimed on&nbsp;Friday&nbsp;to have captured another village on the outskirts of Bakhmut, the small mining city in the&nbsp;east&nbsp;that has been the focus of Moscow's offensive.
Russia&nbsp;has made clear if slow progress attempting to encircle Bakhmut, but failed to capture it in time to deliver a&nbsp;victory&nbsp;for Putin to announce for the anniversary.
Costly&nbsp;Russian assaults have made little or no progress elsewhere on the front. Ukraine, for&nbsp;its&nbsp;part, is concentrating on defence for now, awaiting new weapons supplies for a counter-attack.
Britain announced new sanctions on&nbsp;Russia&nbsp;on&nbsp;Friday,&nbsp;and&nbsp;other Western powers&nbsp;were&nbsp;also expected to do so around a meeting of the Group of Seven (G7) powers, led by Biden, who journeyed to Kyiv&nbsp;and&nbsp;gave a landmark speech in Warsaw this week to mark the anniversary.
White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan&nbsp;said&nbsp;the United States would provide an additional $2 billion in assistance,&nbsp;and&nbsp;new G7 sanctions would target countries seeking to backfill products denied to&nbsp;Russia&nbsp;because of sanctions.
China, which signed a "no limits" partnership with&nbsp;Russia&nbsp;on the eve of the war&nbsp;and&nbsp;signalled support by sending&nbsp;its&nbsp;top diplomat to Moscow this week, issued a peace plan on&nbsp;Friday, sticking to&nbsp;its&nbsp;principle of public neutrality. Washington has&nbsp;said&nbsp;in recent days it believes China may supply weapons to&nbsp;Russia; Beijing denies this.
The U.N. General Assembly overwhelmingly adopted a resolution on Thursday demanding that&nbsp;Russia&nbsp;pull out.
There&nbsp;were&nbsp;141 votes in favour&nbsp;and&nbsp;32 abstentions, including China. Six countries joined&nbsp;Russia&nbsp;to vote 'no' - Belarus, North Korea, Eritrea, Mali, Nicaragua&nbsp;and&nbsp;Syria.&nbsp;Russia's Deputy U.N. Ambassador Dmitry Polyanskiy dismissed the vote as "useless".
Click on the link to listen to the Reuters World News Podcast Special anniversary episode: The Ukraine war
&nbsp;
(Additional reporting by Dan Peleschuk&nbsp;and&nbsp;Mike Collett-White in Kyiv&nbsp;and&nbsp;Yiming Woo near Bakhmut; Writing by Peter Graff)

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Ukrainians mourn and vow to fight on, a year after Russia invaded