Speaking during a military parade, President Petro Poroshenko said Ukraine must not be complacent even though hostilities have largely died down.
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Activists in the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv claimed Sunday to have painted a local Soviet war monument in Ukraine’s national colors – blue and yellow – to mark the country’s upcoming independence day. “We have to get through the [coming] 25th year of independence as if on brittle ice”.
He said the “Minsk agreements no matter how much they have been criticised gave us the chance and have given us the time to strengthen Ukraine’s defence capabilities”. “The war for independence is still ongoing”.
The dogs in the photographs from Ukraine – many of whom were likely displaced by the fighting in much the same way as the men, women, and children of these towns – are providing their own service as companion animals, guard dogs, or mascots, however informal.
Violence in the two eastern regions of Luhansk and Donetsk has escalated.
Underlining the importance of the so-called Normandy format comprising Germany, Russia, Ukraine and France, Merkel expressed concerns about the fact that the work of OSCE monitors and equipment had been disrupted.
Earlier in Kiev, Poroshenko had said 50,000 Russian troops were massed along the Ukraine-Russia border and a further 9,000 were supporting pro-Russian rebels in separatist territories.
Russia’s foreign minister said Poroshenko’s statements about Russian troops were “unsubstantiated and unscrupulous”. We value our people, our children. “I think he won’t succeed in that”.
Marking the 24th anniversary of Ukraine’s independence, Pope Francis sent a letter to the nation’s president and asked Catholics to join him in prayers for peace.
More than 6,500 people have been killed since fighting erupted in April 2014.
A second successful Russian and separatist offensive in February led to the signing of the second Minsk peace agreement, which lays out a roadmap to peace and imposed a shaky ceasefire that is regularly violated.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel said there were still hostilities and that observers for the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe observers could not move freely to assess the situation.
“Now, the first and most important task should be to take every step to ensure that the ceasefire agreed upon in the Minsk agreement becomes a reality”, Merkel stressed.
‘My heart longs to celebrate’.
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“The enemy knows that we are ready to fight back, and the price of escalation will be too high for Russian Federation”.
