Rebels parade captured Ukrainian soldiers – Regina Leader
Pro-Russian insurgents on Sunday paraded captured Ukrainian soldiers through the streets of the rebel stronghold Donetsk as bystanders shouted abusive slurs and tossed eggs, bottles, and tomatoes at them.
The display came as President Petro Poroshenko vowed to raise defence spending to defeat the rebels during an ostentatious procession of tanks and weaponry through downtown Kyiv, meant to mark Ukraine’s 23rd anniversary of independence from the Soviet Union.
The developments underscore the increasing divisions in Ukraine as it gears up for what could be many more months of conflict. While support and mobilization for Kyiv’s campaign against the separatists has only grown in many parts of the country, resentments fester in much of the east, where civilian casualties and shelling have become a part of daily life.
Several thousand onlookers had gathered in the main square of Donetsk and shouted obscenities at the dozens of captives, some in Ukrainian military garb and some in tattered civilian clothing, who were forced to march past them. They were flanked by armed rebels carrying rifles fitted with bayonets.
One visibly agitated man yelled as he held an infant in one arm. A woman shouted “Hang the fascists from a tree!” Other women rushed at the prisoners, trying to kick and slap them, and were restrained by rebel fighters.
Two water trucks followed the prisoners and hosed down the road, an image meant to evoke historical parallels with an event in Moscow in 1944, when Red Army soldiers paraded tens of thousands of German prisoners of war through the streets.
“Kyiv said that on the 24th, on the Independence Day of Ukraine, they would have a parade. Indeed, they did march in Donetsk, although it wasn’t a parade,” top rebel commander Alexander Zakharchenko said.
“Soldiers of the armed forces of Kyiv walked along the main streets of Donetsk. What Poroshenko planned has taken place.”
The rebels also placed several fire-blackened, shrapnelshredded Ukrainian military vehicles in Donetsk’s main square. Russian nationalist songs blasted from speakers as supporters posed for photos in front of a destroyed tank. Dozens of fighters gathered in formation but quickly dispersed when artillery fire sounded in the distance.
“Today is the so-called independence day of what was Ukraine. And look what has happened to their equipment. This is what has become of Ukraine!” said a pro-Russian rebel fighter who identified herself by her battle name, Nursa, pointing at the remains of a Ukrainian troop transport.
One onlooker grabbed a Ukrainian flag from the wreckage of a tank and threw it to the ground. Several others trampled on it, wiping their feet and spitting. Alexander, a 40-year-old businessman from Donetsk who declined to give his surname, said the Ukrainian flag had no place in the city.
“I feel this is no place for this flag. The great achievement here is that people can see it in the state that it deserves to be in,” he said.
Resentment has grown in the east as residential areas have increasingly come under fire in recent weeks, with the civilian death toll rising to at least 2,000 since April, according to a United Nations report. In Donetsk, an estimated 300,000 of the city’s population of one million have fled the fighting, and many of those who remain have gone weeks without electricity or running water and spent days in bomb shelters.
Early Sunday, artillery shells struck several residential buildings as well as a major hospital and morgue in downtown Donetsk.
In a statement on Sunday, Prime Minister Stephen Harper marked the 23rd anniversary of Ukraine’s independence, noting that Canada was the first Western country to recognize Ukraine as a sovereign state.
“Canada has remained steadfast in its support for the people of Ukraine, providing assistance to promote development, trade and good governance,” Harper said.
“On this special anniversary, Canada calls on Russia’s leader to cease all provocative military activity,” he said.