In Kyiv today: a Soviet-style military parade amid ongoing war. Many here think it's unnecessary pic.twitter.com/wDEhgqoZbN via @olliecarroll
— Maxim Eristavi (@MaximEristavi) August 24, 2014
Rebels in Donetsk have their own parade on Ukraine's Ind. Day: around destroyed Ukr military vehicles via @PierreCrom pic.twitter.com/z8oCeKzPZl
— Maxim Eristavi (@MaximEristavi) August 24, 2014
It seems Ukraine's Independence Day has been honored with a Google Doodle. You can check it out here.
Пораненим військовим влаштували овацію pic.twitter.com/y3xVtfVXAh
— NatalieZubar (@NatalieZubar) August 24, 2014
An attempt to display Ukrainian flag on a bridge by the Kremlin. Five detained. MT “@GraniTweet: http://t.co/jIRFX3TRLL ВИДЕО”
— Leonid Ragozin (@leonidragozin) August 24, 2014
So, Ukrainian President Poroshenko has been making his Independence Day speech. Here are some key details from our news desk:
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has presided over a military parade in Kyiv's Independence Square -- known locally as the "Maidan" -- where armored vehicles armed with antitank weapons and machine-guns and trucks towing missile systems followed behind columns of soldiers.
Poroshenko announced Ukraine will spend some $3.0 billion on re-equipping the army in 2015-2017.
(AFP,AP, Reuters)
Ambivalent on Kiev parade. Patriotic boost for population/soldiers, but parading weapons that are killing Ukrainians seems misjudged at best
— Shaun Walker (@shaunwalker7) August 24, 2014
Needless to say, many have been expressing outrage at the kidnapping and killing of the Lithuanian Honorary Consul in Luhansk yesterday. Here is a statement issued last night by Marie Harf, the deputy spokesperson for the U.S. State Department:
Today we were shocked to hear reports that Lithuanian Honorary Consul Mykola Zelenec was abducted and murdered by separatist groups operating in Luhansk. We extend heartfelt condolences to his family and friends. While we are still seeking information on the circumstances of this tragedy, one thing is clear: For too long people of courage in Ukraine have risked abduction, torture, and even death for their commitment to transparency in the face of cynical armed attempts to dictate Ukraine’s future. We rededicate ourselves to supporting the search for an end to the violence, as we mourn another victim of this manufactured conflict.
Special thanks to volunteers who supported #Ukrainian army from day1 of mil conflict in E.#Ukraine @poroshenko speech pic.twitter.com/RhCwQ0hEa5
— Volodymyr Solohub (@v_solohub) August 24, 2014
NOW #Ukraine #IndependenceDay mil parade finally kicks off in central #Kyiv - let's hope nobody faints this time pic.twitter.com/LwviHQCD5R
— Volodymyr Solohub (@v_solohub) August 24, 2014
Good morning. We'll start the live blog today with this report from our news desk on how Ukraine has been marking its independence day:
Ukraine has been marking 23 years of independence on August 24 amid the ongoing crisis in the east of the country.
President Petro Poroshenko was due to preside over a military parade in downtown Kyiv amid what were expected to be subdued celebrations.
The anniversary comes a day after hundreds of Russian aid trucks returned home from rebel-held eastern Ukraine.
Russia unilaterally sent hundreds of aid trucks into Ukraine through a rebel-held border point on August 22, saying it had lost patience with Ukraine's delaying tactics, a move that Ukraine promptly described as an invasion.
By mid-afternoon on August 23, all the vehicles had returned to Russia, Paul Picard of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) told reporters in the Russian town of Donetsk.
An AP reporter on the Ukrainian side of the border was able to look inside about 40 of the tractor-trailers and confirmed they were empty.
Russia said the trucks carried only food, water, generators and sleeping bags to the hard-hit rebel stronghold of Luhansk.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel held talks in Kyiv with Ukrainian officials and expressed hope for a peaceful solution to the conflict that has claimed more than 2,000 lives.
Diplomats say Merkel came to Kyiv with two objectives: primarily to show support for Kyiv but also to urge Poroshenko to be open to peace proposals when he meets Putin next week in the Belarus capital, Minsk.
Merkel said the standoff over Ukraine could be solved but only if control was tightened over the Ukraine-Russia border across which, the West alleges, Russia has been funneling arms to help a separatist rebellion.
She proposed a deal between Kyiv and Moscow on monitoring the nearly 2,000-kilometer border by the OSCE.
Hours before Merkel's plane landed in Kyiv, there was heavy artillery bombardment in Donetsk, the main separatist stronghold on the east of Ukraine, near the border with Russia.
(AP, Reuters)