UKRAINE-INDEPENDENCE DAY/MILITARY PARADE Defiant Ukraine turns on military display as war rumbles on in the east

Record ID: 450913

  • Title: UKRAINE-INDEPENDENCE DAY/MILITARY PARADE Defiant Ukraine turns on military display as war rumbles on in the east
  • Date: 24th August 2014
  • Summary: KIEV, UKRAINE (AUGUST 24, 2014) (REUTERS) PEOPLE AT INDEPENDENCE SQUARE
  • Embargoed: 8th September 2014 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Ukraine
  • Country: Ukraine
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVA6MHSNPFBT12TSTDI7YV07W1QU
  • Story Text: Armoured vehicles and soldiers paraded in Kiev on Sunday (August 24) in a defiant national day display of military power that Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said was being mobilised for a historic war of independence from Russia.
    Soldiers, some due to head directly to the front where government forces are fighting pro-Russian separatists, staged a marchpast on Kiev's Independence Square followed by a parade of armored vehicles armed with anti-tank weapons and trucks towing missile systems.
    In a ceremony combining patriotism, solemnity and deep emotion, Poroshenko declared that Ukraine's war against pro-Russian separatists, who it says are armed by Moscow, would likely enter history as 'the 2014 patriotic war'.
    "The events of the last few months have turned into a real war for us, an unannounced one. This war will be, probably, written in our history as Patriotic War of 2014. A war against external aggression. For Ukraine!" Poroshenko said.
    Ukraine declared its independence from a collapsing Soviet Union on August 25, 1991, but many Ukrainians believe Moscow has never truly let it function as a sovereign state, and is now trying to restore its control.
    Russia denies helping the rebellion, or trying to intervene in Ukraine's internal affairs.
    Poroshenko announced 40 billion hryvnia (3 billion USD) would be spent on re-equipping the army in 2015-2017. The armed forces are only a fraction of the size of those in Russia.
    "We have proven that we can defend our country. And it is clear that in the foreseeable future, unfortunately, a constant military threat will hang over Ukraine. And we need to learn not only to live with this, but also to always be prepared to defend the independence of our country. And by the end of this year billions of hryvnias will be allocated for modernisation of weapons and military equipment," he added.
    The United Nations says more than 2,000 people have been killed since the conflict erupted in April in Ukraine's mainly Russian-speaking east following Russia's annexation of Crimea. The death toll accelerated in the past few weeks, as Ukrainian forces went on the offensive.
    The separatists, and Russia, accuse Kiev of mounting indiscriminate bombing of civilian areas, using irregular militias tied to far-right political groups, and denying residents water and power. Kiev denies targeting civilians.
    Organisers of the festivities in Kiev on Sunday said the 1,500 service personnel taking part included about 120 men who had already seen action on the eastern front in areas near the rebel-strongholds of Donetsk and Luhansk.
    Kiev's Independence Square - known locally as the 'Maidan' and which was the crucible of street protests that toppled a Moscow-backed leader and precipitated the separatist rebellions in the east - was bedecked with the blue-and-yellow flag of Ukraine.
    Earlier, Poroshenko and his family placed wreaths and knelt down before shrines to those who are now known as 'Heaven's Hundred' and who were killed on an incline just off the Maidan.


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