With yellow-blue flags on their backs, a few boys stand on a trash dumpster on Khreshchatyk Street. Police officers try to get them down, but they refuse so that they can better see the military vehicles going towards Maidan Nezalezhnosti, or Independence Square.
The military parade gathered thousands of
Ukrainians who were conflicted about whether a celebratory parade should take
place in time of war.
Maksym Positko, 20, a member of the National
Guard and who will soon go to the war front in the east, said that he is not in favor the parade, but follows orders: “On one hand,
the feeling of moral ascension appears when moving with a column. The joint
moral spirit is felt. On the other hand, our brothers are fighting in cruel
circumstances.”
Mariana Matveychuk, 25, is against the parade,
considering Ukraine’s perilous state. “Such a festival is unacceptable while our
defenders have no weapons and equipment. My cousin is now fighting in a
volunteer battalion in eastern Ukraine. Should I be glad here to observe all
these new vehicles uselessly driving?” she said.
Meanwhile, a couple dressed in vyshyvankas,
or Ukrainian embroidered shirts, believe the parade is necessary.
Pavlo Smiyan, 36, has served army in
eastern Ukraine. He says: “We have to uplift people. It’s called ideology, that
is being successfully implemented in countries like the U.S. and Russia. Even
if something is not very objective, we need to tell Ukrainians they are great
nation,” he said.
Three veterans with honors on their chest found it difficult to get through a column of people roming the streets.The
military parade has been a significant event for those like Nikolay Tsarov, 90, since the 17-year-old
student of military college observed it in Moscow last century. “That time
the fascists were about to enter. After the parade we were urged to leave for
combat. As for now Ukrainian government also has to convince the people of
Ukraine that they are strong and will definitely win,”- recalling the war-time Tsarov, a native Russian, frankly supports the
servicemen in ATO.
Taisiya Puhanova, 79, also says the parade is important: “It’s not an obligation or trend, it’s
about expressing ones national pride. To my mind, this is more an occasion to
show respect to our heroes, fallen and alive. It’s the best time to manifest
hope for peace and our full Independence.”
Under the banner of Luhansk Oblast, 16-year-old
Bohdan Kuznecov from Luhansk raises the Ukrainian flag. “I am extremely happy
to witness and to be present here,” he says.
Dozens of vyshyvankas and people with flowered
the addresses come to the final destination – a stage on Sophia Square.
People quickly disperse to watch an
open-air exhibition of folk crafts from all around Ukraine, to listen to the
concert of folk songs, share their impressions or to dance in a tight circle of
random people who are united today as never before.
