(Reuters) - Ukraine was "reborn" when Russia invaded six months ago, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Wednesday, marking 31 years of his country's independence from the Moscow-controlled Soviet Union with a vow to drive Russian forces out completely.

After days of warnings that Moscow could use the anniversary of Ukraine's Independence Day to launch more missile attacks on major cities, Kyiv was unusually quiet and the second biggest city Kharkiv was under curfew after months of bombardment.

The anniversary fell exactly six months after Russia sent tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine.

In an emotional speech to his compatriots, Zelenskiy said the attack had revived the nation's spirit.

"A new nation appeared in the world on Feb. 24 at 4 in the morning. It was not born, but reborn. A nation that did not cry, scream or take fright. One that did not flee. Did not give up. And did not forget," he said.

The 44-year-old leader, speaking in front of Kyiv's central monument to independence in his trademark combat fatigues, vowed to recapture occupied areas of eastern Ukraine as well as the Crimean peninsula, which was annexed by Russia in 2014.

"What for us is the end of the war? We used to say: peace. Now we say: victory," he said, days after his government laid out the hulks of burnt-out Russian tanks and armoured vehicles in central Kyiv in a show of defiance.

Russia's war effort in Ukraine has made little progress in recent months, after its troops were pushed back from Kyiv in the early weeks of the war.

Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu told a meeting of defence ministers in Uzbekistan that Russia had deliberately slowed down what it refers to as its "special military operation" in Ukraine to avoid civilian casualties.