Turning the pages back... August 24, 2002 (08/24/03)

Turning the pages back...

August 24, 2002

Last year's celebration of Ukrainian Independence Day in Kyiv was a relatively subdued event, according to our correspondent on the scene, Roman Woronowycz, even though the size and excitement of the crowds on the Khreschatyk mirrored those of years past. Following are excerpts of our Kyiv Press Bureau chief's report.

In part, the toned-down atmosphere was in response to several tragedies that the country had suffered in the last two months, including an air disaster and several coal mine explosions, which had resulted in hundreds of deaths. Also, organizers could not have hoped to exceed the hoopla of the 10th anniversary celebrations of the previous year and the awe at the site of military hardware. ...

Perhaps the most notable moment of this year's traditional Khreschatyk military parade came at the onset, when Minister of Defense Volodymyr Shkidchenko, a general of the army, during the annual address to the citizens, troops and state leaders gathered on Ukraine's most renowned thoroughfare, apologized for the Ukrainian military's involvement in several accidents over the course of the last years, notably the airshow disaster at the Sknyliv Aerodrome in Lviv on July 27.

"We ask forgiveness for the several tragedies of the last years that the armed forces failed to prevent," said Gen. Shkidchenko, speaking from the main reviewing stand with President Leonid Kuchma standing at his side, and the 60-meter-high column of independence with lady liberty perched atop it looming in the background alongside a huge blue-and-yellow trident.

"All will be done in the next years to return the faith that had been accorded the armed forces of Ukraine and to quicken the pace of military reforms," added the head of Ukraine's military.

After his address, 3,500 soldiers, cadets and plebes from the country's military installations, academies and lyceums marched up the Khreschatyk and past Independence Square where a banner proclaimed the official slogan of this year's celebrations: "Ukraine Has Happened - Today and Forever."

As the high-stepping soldiers walked off down the street, marching bands filled the area before the main review stand - 29 in all, comprising more than 1,000 military musicians - and gave a 30-minute concert of classical and marching music, with President Kuchma, Prime Minister Anatolii Kinakh and other state and government leaders appreciatively clapping.

Afterwards, the president presented national awards at his official residence, the Mariinskyi Palace, which was followed by the annual 10-kilometer run down the Khreschatyk. In the evening, crowds gathered once again in the city center to listen to Ukraine's most popular musical acts perform live on stages erected on European Square and Independence Square, before oohing and aahing at one of Kyiv's traditionally spectacular fireworks displays.

While Kyiv was the center of Ukrainian Independence Day celebrations, festivities took place all around the country.

In Lviv, scouts of the Plast Ukrainian Scouting Association ended a two-week international jamboree in the hills outside of the city by re-burying the remains of their founder, Oleksander Tysovsky, at the city's historic Lychakiv Cemetery, where scores of Ukrainian heroes are interred. The late founder of Plast originally had been laid to rest in Vienna, Austria.

In Sevastopol, the Ukrainian navy held a street parade and then a ceremony aboard its flagship, the Hetman Sahaidachny. Molebens were conducted in the city's churches in memory of its dead warriors.

Donetsk held its annual Troyanda Donetsk city festival, while Chernihiv marked the beginning of the Korovai 2002 Baking Festival.

In Odesa, the "City Of Monuments" as it likes to call itself, residents celebrated by unveiling another statue, this one a memorial bust to Hetman Bohdan Khmelnytsky, placed in a square at the top of a street also renamed in honor of the founder of the Kozak state. ...

Source: "Ukraine marks 11th anniversary of independence," by Roman Woronowycz, Kyiv Press Bureau, The Ukrainian Weekly, September 1, 2002, Vol. LXX, No. 35.

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