Protests in Ukraine escalate

[Natalka]

Euromaidan PR @Euro maidanPR · 2h 2 hours ago
95th suffered 4 KIA today in #Avdiyivka #ATO

Euromaidan PR @Euro maidanPR · 3h 3 hours ago #Russia's proxies were shelling #Shyrokyne w/ heavy weapons for 2hrs, now stopped. 1 #Donbas serviceman was WIA

7h 7 hours ago
This is what massive exodus from Donetsk following increased shelling looks like



5h 5 hours ago
Y-day these houses in #Shyrokyne were undamaged. At night Rus proxies fired about 90 rockets

[Natalka]

So sad.... hope the English subtitles show up in the link

97 y.o.WWII vet Ivan Zaluzhny hoped to mark 9May w his grandson.

23 y.o. Lt. Ivan Zaluzhny was killed in E Ukr last Aug

[Natalka]

Exposed bricks, that’s all that remains in place of the commemorative plaque to one of the bravest people that ever lived in Donetsk. The Russian occupation force cowardly took it down. The plaque was attached to a wall at Donetsk University, honoring one of its graduates, the major Ukrainian poet and Soviet dissident Vasyl Stus.

Stus never took an easy path. His love for Ukraine, his literary talent and inextinguishable sense of justice made it impossible for him to be silent about the suppression of human rights and everything Ukrainian under the Communist rule. Through his poetry and activity in the Ukrainian Helsinki Group, he fought the totalitarian state, but the fight was unequal. He died at the age of 47, while serving the fifth year of a 10-year sentence on charges of “anti-Soviet agitation and propaganda” in a GULAG mine six months after Mikhail Gorbachev came to power in the USSR.





What the Russians took down -

[Natalka]

3 #Ukrainian servicemen liberated from militant captivity arrived in #Dnipropetrovsk.
Were taken captive on 29Jan

Russian-backed militants in the Donbas still hold around 300 Ukrainian citizens prisoner, the head of Ukraine’s SBU state security service said in an interview given in Kyiv on Tuesday

[Natalka]

Poroshenko: over 90,000 Russian-backed militants, regular troops in Donbas

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko claims that the threat of a large-scale offensive from the side of Russian-backed militants has been growing, and the strength of the enemy's troops is estimated at 40,000 men, while another 50,000 servicemen are deployed along the border with Ukraine.

Poroshenko announced these figures at a meeting of the National Security and Defense Council on Wednesday, the presidential press service told UNIAN.

The president emphasized that the threat of a large-scale offensive by Russian-backed terrorist groups had been increased, which requires additional measures to ensure the state's defensive capacity. "[They include] from the operative regrouping and deployment of troops, specification of tasks on the fifth wave of mobilization, an improvement in the anti-airborne and countersabotage defense of Mariupol, Berdiansk and the entire Azov coast, and as far as to the National Security Strategy," the president said.

Also, the president stressed the need to enhance the country's defensive capacity and the creation of modern armed forces. According to him, a reliable, highly professional and disciplined army that has stopped the enemy's aggression exists in the country due to the efforts of servicemen and volunteers.

Ukraine strictly abides by the Minsk peace agreements, the president stressed. "There is a convincing piece of evidence when all the sides have recorded that Ukraine strictly abides by the Minsk agreements and militants constantly violate them," Poroshenko said. What is more, he noted, militants do not allow international observers to verify their withdrawal of heavy weapons. "Militants regularly shell Ukrainian positions and civilians, conduct reconnaissance and subversive activity, provoke skirmishes to disrupt a peaceful resolution to the conflict," he added.

http://www.unian.info/war/1075302-po...in-donbas.html

[Natalka]

Ukrainian president Poroshenko and UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon opened the installation "Remembrance poppies" in Kyiv





Auschwitz survivor Anastasia Guley opens installation: #Ukraine map made of poppies





Motherland statue decorated w/ poppy crown





Shows how big this is -

[Natalka]

Ppl start bringing flowers to the Tomb of unknown soldier at the Glory Park in #Kyiv commemorating WWII fallen





Glory Park, #Kyiv: school children line up along the tombs of servicemen fallen in combat against the Nazi in WWII

[Natalka]

Tribute to WWII fallen in #Gdansk: Prez-s #Poroshenko, #Komorowski, foreign delegations heads




WARSAW, Poland – Poland's president led international commemorations late Thursday and into Friday marking the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II, a gathering meant as an alternative celebration to Moscow's Red Square parade this weekend.

President Bronislaw Komorowski was joined by U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, European Council President Donald Tusk, who is Polish, and the presidents of Ukraine and several Central European countries for a ceremony that began just before midnight on the Westerplatte peninsula in Gdansk. That is the site of some of the first shots fired by Germany against Poland at the start of the war on Sept. 1, 1939.

Komorowski originally organized the ceremonies in Gdansk in reaction to the deep divisions between the West and Russia over Moscow's actions in Ukraine. They were meant to give Western leaders a chance to pay homage to the Allied victory over Nazi Germany without traveling to Moscow.

Komorowski also criticized Russia for changing borders in Europe with its annexation of Crimea.

"This is something that hasn't been practiced since 1939," he said. "There can be no acceptance of such a practice. These anachronistic attitudes will not stop the aspirations of peoples to decide their own destiny."

http://www.freep.com/story/news/worl...r-ii/70976260/

[Natalka]

How interesting - this man was from a town about 45 minutes from where I live now.

Fighters of the French Resistance called him ‘Pierre le Canadien’. Petro Dmytruk was born in Radisson, Saskatchewan in 1920 to a Ukrainian immigrant family. He joined the Royal Canadian Air Force in July 1941 to become one of the Europe’s war heroes.


The Government of Ukraine and the Ukrainian Institute of National Remembrance created videos telling stories of outstanding Ukrainians in the WW2.

https://en.informnapalm.org/glory-to...e-le-canadien/


Video won't embed, but it's on above link.

[Natalka]

song dedicated again to the memory of the victims of the Ukrainian nation in its former and current war against fascism, on Ukraine's day of Remembrance and reconciliation. 1945 - 2015

[Natalka]

Euromaidan PR @Euro maidanPR · 2h 2 hours ago 70th anniversary of #WWII end marked in #Berlin

[Natalka]

Ukraine marks Day of Remembrance and Reconciliation


On May 8 Europe marks VE Day 70th anniversary


UNIAN: Ukraine is for the first time celebrating the Day of Remembrance and Reconciliation on May 8, the same date as the rest of Europe celebrates Victory in Europe Day, to mark the Allies' acceptance of the surrender of Nazi Germany in the Second World War in 1945.


News of the defeat of Nazi Germany reached Moscow on May 9, so the Soviet Union, and latterly the former Soviet Union republics, have traditionally celebrated the victory a day after the countries of western Europe.

[Natalka]

The President of Ukraine awarded 21 soldiers, ten of them - posthumously with the title Hero of Ukraine at a special parliamentary session.


The solemn session was devoted to the 70th anniversary of the victory over Nazism in Europe. It was attended by Ukrainian leaders, veterans of the Red Army and the Ukrainian Insurgent Army, and the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.





http://en.censor.net.ua/photo_news/3...ent_poroshenko

[Natalka]

War veterans have old-fashioned picnic to celebrate Victory Day


War veterans have an old-fashioned picnic on May 7 to celebrate Victory Day. Solomyanskiy District of Kyiv
The veterans including those who fought in World War II, the Soviet war in Afghanistan and in Ukraine's war zone in the eastern Donbas.

A soldier from Ukraine's war zone speaks with a World War II veteran


The picnic included dishes made in a field kitchen and vodka.


Actors put on a play


Dancing!


Afghanistan veterans


Soldiers from Ukraine's war zone


http://www.kyivpost.com/multimedia/p...ay-388082.html

[Natalka]

1980 balloons of #Ukrainian flag colors sent to the sky in #Starobilsk.




Starobilsk city in Lugansk Region is one of the places of peace and stability in the area close to the front line. Few dozens kilometers from here the land is regular shelled. Pro-Russian terrorists intoxicated by false ideas are shelling not only Ukrainian Army positions, but residential areas as well. Although schools, hospitals and shops are working in the city and young women are walking along the streets and children are playing without fear, the echo of war still can be seen here.

Local people feel that and they got together on the central square of Starobils on May 8. Schoolchildren took part in a flash-mob. They sent to the sky balloons of Ukrainian flag colors wishing peace and harmony to all Ukrainian people.



The previous record belongs to Kiev children who got together in the center of the city and sent 1300 balloons to the sky last year at the time when Crimea was already annexed and the war in Donbass started. Now children of Lugansk Region set new records that will be in National Book of Records of Ukraine



Military were also there. They enjoyed the performance and watched the concert made by young people of Lugansk Region.





http://lugansk-news.com/1980-balloon...ainian-people/