Kyiv Military Parade 2009

A Military Parade Turns Into a Military Festival

Today marks the 18th anniversary of Ukraine's regained statehood. Ukraine is coming of age — in a very difficult, crisis-stricken age.

It wasn't quite as sunny as last year, but the flags were there.


August 23 is Flag Day in Ukraine









Give peace a chance!






















After a rather soporific speech by President Yushchenko, the parade finally kicked into gear. It went well, albeit in an unusual mode: the troops marched in sync with the aviation, not separately as before. (According to news reports, the President was 9 minutes too long, which upset the flight schedule.)









Ruslan and Mriya (the world's biggest cargo aircraft)





Yet what began like a parade ended up like a puzzle: the tanks wouldn't come. That pissed many people off. Well, only those people who didn't make it to Maidan Nezalezhnosti (Independence Square).





I did make it — through those nasty police cordons.
And, lo and behold, I found my favorite toys standing motionless there — from Independence Square all the way to European Square...

...with swarms of kids crawling all over them.














































Older kids deserve special note. I, for one, couldn't resist the temptation to mount one of those toys and have my fair share of fun. I











I haven't done this since I was a kid enjoying myself in the open-air artillery section of the WW II Museum.

Woohoo!




















Rationally, I still contend that the money would have been better spent on the military's urgent needs. But emotionally, I concede that the touch’n’feel approach created an interesting break with the watch’n’listen tradition.








The flower clock! Amazing piece of work!


Evening edition









З Днем Незалежності, Україно! Happy Independence Day, Ukraine!