Ukraine celebrates independence (08/31/97)

CELEBRATIONS AND COMMEMORATIONS OF UKRAINE'S INDEPENDENCE

Ukraine celebrates independence

by Khristina Lew
Kyiv Press Bureau

LVIV - The heart of western Ukraine greeted the sixth anniversary of Ukraine's independence with patriotic aplomb, as thousands of Lviviany gathered on Prospekt Svobody on August 24 to discuss politics, sing songs of the Sich Riflemen and partake in general merrymaking.

All day long, a steady stream of old and young laid flowers at the statue of Taras Shevchenko that overlooks the city's main avenue, formerly Prospekt Lenina, the site of Ukraine's political awakening in the late 1980s. City leaders honored the soldiers who fought for Ukraine's independence by placing flowers on their graves at the Lychakivskyi and Yanivskyi cemeteries.

At 10 a.m. Lviv Mayor Vasyl Kuybida greeted the 400 participants of the "Halychyna" marathon, which began at Prospekt Svobody, wound through the villages surrounding Lviv, and finished in the city center.

In the afternoon, veterans of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists-Ukrainian Insurgent Army (OUN-UPA) gathered at the Shevchenko monument in dress uniform to sing songs of Ukraine's turbulent past, while folklore ensembles in national costumes performed at various sites throughout the city.

At the Shevchenkivskyi Hai open-air museum, artists and craftsmen displayed their works along the winding paths leading to an open-air stage, where folk ensembles and musicians from throughout the Lviv Oblast performed.

Across town at the Ukraina Stadium, low-flying airplanes dropped parachutists waving blue-and-yellow Ukrainian flags onto the field where Lviv's youth began gathering for an Independence Day rock concert sponsored by Rukh and the People's Democratic Party (Narodna Demokratychna Partia).

As evening settled on Lviv, thousands of young people blocked the streets leading to the Ukraina Stadium, where for 5 hrv ($2.75) they could listen to Ukraine's most popular pop and rock bands - VV, Skriabin, Pikardiiska Tertsia, Mertvyi Piven, Komu Vnyz, Ruslana and Plach Yeremii - perform. The concert, which filled the 15,000-seat stadium, was simulcast in Kyiv, Lviv and Kharkiv.

Official Independence Day celebrations

Ukraine officially began celebrating Independence Day on August 22 with a presentation of the new Cabinet of Ministers at Mariinskyi Palace in Kyiv. The presentation ceremony, attended by Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma, was broadcast live on Ukrainian television.

In a separate ceremony at the Presidential Administration Building, President Kuchma presented awards to more than 60 people "who have made weighty contributions to building and strengthening the state." Among those honored were citizens of the United States, France and Poland, including Ulana Diachuk, president of the Ukrainian American Coordinating Council, Askold Lozynskyj, president of the Ukrainian Congress Committee of America, Julian Kulas, president, First Security F.S.B. in Chicago, and Bohdan Watral, president, Selfreliance F.C.U. in Chicago.

Throughout the summer, the Presidential Administration Building had been swathed in blue-and-yellow tarps, as craftsmen removed the hammer and sickle emblem adorning its facade. Replacing the symbol of the Soviet Union will be the Great State Emblem of Ukraine, whose status has yet to be confirmed by a two-thirds constitutional majority of Ukraine's Verkhovna Rada.

On the afternoon of August 22, Prime Minister Valerii Pustovoitenko addressed an official Independence Day gathering of Cabinet ministers, national deputies and delegates to the second World Forum of Ukrainians at the Ukraina Palace of Culture.

In the 30-minute address, his first public policy speech since being appointed prime minister, Mr. Pustovoitenko highlighted Ukraine's achievements in the past six years and outlined its goals for the future. "Democratic Ukraine has taken its rightful place in the world. We didn't emerge in Europe in 1991, we have always been here," he said.

The prime minister said Ukraine must expand into the world marketplace by strengthening economic relations with its CIS neighbors, the Group of Seven industrial states, Europe, Asia and Latin America. "Our goal is become the true regional leader in Central and Eastern Europe," he emphasized.

The focus of the new Cabinet of Ministers, he said, will be to increase radical economic reform, accelerate the privatization process, eliminate government wastefulness, streamline administrative structures, strengthen the social safety net, and reform the tax system, the agro-industrial complex and the technological sector.

Mr. Pustovoitenko pointed out that Ukraine's gravest problem is its indebtedness to its workers and pensioners, and announced that in August, 1.2 billion hrv, have been allocated to pay back wages and pensions. Ukraine's pensioners, veterans and government-supported Chornobyl victims number four million people.

The prime minister said the government has "no illusions of returning to Soviet times," and that Ukraine will follow its own formula of transforming into a market economy. "These tasks that we have set for ourselves are complicated and far reaching. If we want to live in a democratic, legal state, we must build it. No one will do this for us," he stated.

Mr. Pustovoitenko's address was followed by a celebratory concert.

In recognition of Ukraine's sixth anniversary of independence, President Kuchma received telegrams of congratulations from U.S. President Bill Clinton, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, Austrian President Thomas Klestil, Italian President Luigi Scalfaro, German President Roman Herzog, Latvian President Guntis Ulmanis, Armenian President Levon Ter-Petrosian and other presidents of countries within the Commonwealth of Independent States.

Images of Independence: Ukraine begins its seventh year

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