Ukraine Celebrates 25th Anniversary of Independence

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko speaking on the 25th anniversary of Ukraine's independence. Photo by Unian.

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Ukraine Celebrates 25th Anniversary of Independence

2016-08-24 13:46:30

Today is the 25th anniversary of Ukraine’s independence from the USSR. Within a week of the failed August coup in 1991, Ukraine had declared its independence, a process that had begun long before then.

Translation: Ukraine is 25 years old! It’s only the beginning!

A military parade was held in Kiev and numerous other special events were staged.

Ukraine’s neighbors expressed their support in the face of Russian aggression.

Translation: Duda: Ukraine’s independence reminds us of the price that must be paid for freedom.

Translation: Duda stated Poland’s non-acceptance of the “policy of aggression” on the part of Russia.

TV 1+1 issued a video for the anniversary with scenes of Ukraine’s landscape from a drone.

Google wished Ukraine a happy Independence Day:

In fact, Google’s message is common for such dates in countries around the world. It is only visible on the Ukrainian version of Google’s site at google.ua; the same message cannot be seen at google.com or other country’s sites such as Russian google at google.ru.

Independence Day was an occasion to debate the issue of Ukrainian integration with Europe, over which the Maidan demonstrations began in 2013.

The US wished Ukraine a happy anniversary.

The new US envoy to Kiev, Amb. Marie Yovanovitch has just arrived and issued her statement of congratulation.

Ukraine has a lot to celebrate in the 25 years since it first freed itself from the Soviet Union, which began the process of freeing itself from Russian dominance.

Although many Ukrainians speak Russian and for many it is their primary language, the attitude toward the Russian language continues to be negative and now only 30% of Ukrainian support giving Russian official status.

TASS found a strange way to distract from the fact of Ukrainian Independence Day:

Translation: #ThisDayinHistory August 24 in the year 79 AD the eruption of the Vesuvius volcano destroyed the ancient Roman city of Pompeii.

President Vladimir Putin issued a decree to give housing to former Ukrainian soldiers in Crimea who crossed over to service in the Russian Army.

Although Ukraine is celebrating, there is still a war on which has threatened Ukraine’s freedom, after the Russian annexation of Crimea in 2014 and the ongoing assaults of the Russian-backed separatists in much of Donetsk and Lugansk regions.

As in past years in the week of celebrations, the militants stepped up attacks on the front line.

Some people managed to play the Ukrainian national anthem from hidden speakers in Donetsk.

— Catherine A. Fitzpatrick

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