WORLD
INDEPENDENCE DAY CELEBRATIONS BEGIN WITH MILITARY PARADE IN KIEV
More than five thousand military servicemen took part in the parade as they marched past the stand, from which President LeonId Kuchma, Supreme Rada Speaker Vladimir Litvin, Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovich, other high Ukrainian officials and diplomats accredited in Ukraine watched the parade.
Before its beginning, the country’s leaders put flowers at the monuments to Prince Vladimir, poet Taras Shevchenko and to the first president of the Ukrainian People’s Republic Mikhail Grushevsky, who was elected in 1918.
Ukraine proclaimed its independence on August 24, 1991. The Supreme Rada ruled in February 1992 that August 24 shall be observed as Independence Day, because the Act proclaiming Ukraine as an independent state was adopted on August 24, 1991.
The Supreme Rada decreed that Independence Day would henceforth be observed as a national state holiday.