KYIV, Ukraine — A somber atmosphere pervaded Ukraine’s 33rd Independence Day on Saturday, as the nation’s fight to repel Russia’s full-scale invasion reached a 30-month milestone.

No fireworks, parades or concerts took place. Instead, Ukrainians marked the day with commemorations for civilians and soldiers killed in the war.

Ukrainians flooded social media with messages of gratitude and support, greeting each other and thanking the soldiers on the front lines. In the outpouring of unity, there’s a shared acknowledgment that the 2 1/2 years have been tough, with fatigue increasingly setting in.

“Independence is the silence we experience when we lose our people,” President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a video message to the nation. “Independence descends into the shelter during an air raid, only to endure and rise again and again to tell the enemy: ‘You will achieve nothing.’ ”

In central Kyiv, people paraded in festive “vyshyvankas,” Ukrainian traditional embroidered shirts. Some took photos with the national blue-and-yellow flag in front of an “I Love Ukraine” sign near a makeshift memorial dedicated to the fallen soldiers.

Many people came from regions around Ukraine to the capital for the occasion.

Ukraine declared independence from the Soviet Union on Aug. 24, 1991.

“We can celebrate this holiday thanks to our soldiers — because of them we live,” said Oksana Stavnycha, who came to Kyiv from Vinnytsia with her 7-year-old daughter and husband.

They brought flowers to honor Ukraine’s fallen soldiers.

“The price of our independence is very high, and every day many men give up their lives for it,” Stavnycha said.

Meanwhile, Ukraine and Russia on Saturday exchanged more than 100 prisoners of war each.

Ukraine said the 115 Ukrainian servicemen who were freed were conscripts, many of whom were taken prisoner in the first months of Russia’s invasion. Among them are nearly 50 soldiers captured by Russian forces from the Azovstal steelworks in Mariupol.

The Russian Defense Ministry said the 115 Russian soldiers had been captured in the Kursk region, where Ukrainian forces launched their surprise offensive into Russia two weeks ago. The ministry said the soldiers were in Belarus, but would be taken to Russia for medical treatment and rehabilitation.

Zelenskyy said in a post on X that the United Arab Emirates had again brokered the exchange, the 55th since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of its neighbor Feb. 24, 2022.

Photos attached to Zelenskyy’s post show gaunt servicemen with shaven heads and wrapped in Ukrainian flags.

“We remember each and every one. We are searching and doing our best to get everyone back,” Zelenskyy said in the post.

Zelenskyy also pointed out that the war has now spread to Russia. “Those who seek to sow evil on our land will reap its fruits on their own soil,” he said, referring to Ukraine’s incursion Aug. 6 into Russia’s Kursk region.

Zelenskyy chose to record his address in the northeastern town of Sumy, near the Russian border, where Ukrainian forces crossed into Russia.

“Nine hundred and 13 days ago, Russia launched its war against us, partly through Sumy region,” he said.

“They violated not only sovereign borders but also the boundaries of cruelty and common sense, driven by an insatiable desire to destroy us.”

Ukraine’s incursion into Russia gave the war a startling turn, adding a new front to the conflict to counter Russia’s grinding advances in eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk region. Ukraine seized considerable Russian territory, including scores of towns, and captured hundreds of Russian soldiers, moves that may influence the war’s trajectory.

“And those who sought to turn our lands into a buffer zone should now worry that their own country doesn’t become a buffer federation,” Zelenskyy said. “This is how independence responds.”

Ukraine claims to hold 480 square miles of territory in Kursk, and in the past week it has also launched drone attacks that have struck strategic bridges, airfields and drone bases.

Ukraine’s top military commander, Gen. Oleksandr Syrskyi, honored the soldiers who fought in Kursk region with military awards.

“Our independence is in our blood,” he posted Saturday on Telegram. “In the blood that flows in our veins, in the blood that our heroes shed for their native land.”