On Tuesday, August 24, Ukraine celebrated the 30th anniversary of its Independence. The festive military parade was held at once in three cities: Kyiv, Dnipro, and Odesa.
Units of the Ukrainian army, tanks, armored personnel carriers, missiles, and air defense systems marched along the central street of Kyiv and Dnipro, while a parade of Ukrainian Navy units took place in the Black Sea port of Odessa.
In Kyiv, a solemn parade of troops began with the carrying of the flag of Ukraine 30 meters long in honor of the anniversary of independence.
“What is a powerful country? A country that dreams ambitiously and acts decisively. A country that is not afraid of the words "first time". That is why, for the first time in 30 years, Antonov is building three planes for the state. New tanks and helicopters with Ukrainian blades are being built for the army this year. A powerful country is reviving its naval fleet, naval bases and building corvettes. A powerful country is a country that adopts a missile program for 10 years,” the President noted in his solemn speech on Maidan Nezalezhnosti.
Large military parade declared Ukraine would reclaim areas of its territory annexed by Russia.
"We are fighting for our people, because it is possible to temporarily occupy territories, but it is impossible to occupy people's love for Ukraine," President Volodymyr Zelensky said at a ceremony before the parade.
"People in Donbas and Crimea will return to us because we are a family," he said.
In addition to the Ukrainian military, the Parade was also joined by representatives of the armies of partner countries - the United States, Lithuania, Estonia, Georgia, Denmark, Norway, Canada, Moldova and other countries. The marching procession was completed by an international combined orchestra with the participation of military partner countries (USA, Great Britain, Poland).
The parade continued with the flight of aircraft of the Air Force of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the Land Forces, the Navy, the National Guard of Ukraine, the State Emergency Service, the State Border Service of Ukraine, the National Police of Ukraine, the Antonov State Enterprise and partner countries. In particular, one could see the pride of Ukraine in the sky - the world's largest transport aircraft An-225 Mriya.
At the same time, the external raid of the seaport of Odesa hosted a ceremonial passage of warships, boats and ships and the flight of aircraft, demonstration of aerobatic maneuvers by light civil aircraft, passage of ships and boats of partner countries, NATO member states.
A combined mechanized column of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and other security and defense forces of Ukraine passed through Khreschatyk. The parade also demonstrated Ukrainian AFU’s artillery systems, rocket-propelled grenade launchers, air defense systems, unmanned aerial vehicles, including domestic ones.
Finally, a demonstration flight of aircraft with blue-yellow smoke took place in the sky over Kyiv.
Relations between Kyiv and Moscow collapsed after Russia annexed the Crimean peninsula in 2014 and the outbreak of war between Ukrainian troops and Russian-backed forces in eastern Ukraine that Kyiv says has killed 14,000 people in seven years.