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KYIV, Ukraine -- Ukraine's president on Tuesday urged closer ties between the ex-Soviet nation and NATO and the European Union in a speech marking the 30th anniversary of Ukraine's independence.

Ukraine celebrated its independence day on Tuesday with a military parade and massive festivities in the capital Kyiv. Opening the parade, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that a strong Ukraine is a country that dreams ambitiously and acts decisively.

Such a country becomes NATO's Enhanced Opportunities Partner; such a country is officially supported by others when it applies to join the European Union," Zelenskyy said.

Ukraine didn't officially become independent until the collapse of the Soviet Union in December 1991. But like most of the 15 former Soviet republics, it declared its sovereignty immediately after the failed hard-line coup against reformist Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev.

On Aug. 24, 1991, the Ukrainian parliament adopted the Act of Declaration of Independence of Ukraine, reestablishing the countrys independence after more than 70 years of being part of the Soviet Union. Less than four months later, Boris Yeltsin and leaders of other Soviet republics declared the Soviet Union defunct and Gorbachev stepped down on Dec. 25, 1991.

The 30th anniversary of Ukraine's independence came as the country is locked in a bitter tug-of-war with Russia, which in 2014 annexed Crimea and has since been backing a separatist insurgency in eastern Ukraine, and Kyivs efforts to shore up support among Western nations.

Territories may be occupied, but one can't occupy the people's love for Ukraine. One can create a desperate situation and make people get (Russian) passports, but one can't issue passports for their Ukrainian hearts, Zelenskyy said Tuesday. If some people in Crimea and Donbass (region in eastern Ukraine, controlled by Russia-backed separatists) are afraid to talk about it, it doesn't mean they are afraid to think about it. They will come back, because we're family.

The center of Kyiv on Tuesday turned into a large venue for concerts and other festive events marking the anniversary. Thousands of people flocked to the central Maidan square, which over the past 30 years has been a rallying point for Ukrainians.

The popular uprising of 2013-2014, which ousted pro-Russia President Viktor Yanukovych and triggered the years-long confrontation with Moscow, started on Maidan square.

Delegations from 46 countries and blocs, including 14 presidents, attended the parade in Kyiv. The day before, they took part in the Crimean Platform summit called by Ukraine to build up pressure on Russia over the 2014 annexation of Crimea that has been denounced as illegal by most of the world.

The annexation and Moscows backing of rebels in the east of Ukraine, where more than 14,000 have been killed since 2014 in the fighting between separatists and Ukrainian forces, plunged Russias relations with the West to post-Cold War lows. The tensions rose once again this year after Russia increased troop numbers near its borders with Ukraine, including in Crimea, eliciting international outrage.

Russian President Vladimir Putin published an article last month, describing Russians and Ukrainians as one people and accusing the West of working methodically to rupture historic links between the two neighbors and to turn Ukraine into a key bulwark to contain Russia.

But polls in Ukraine show that the vast majority of Ukrainians support the independence of the country. If a referendum on Ukraine's independence was held this year, 70.3% of the country's residents would vote for it, according to a survey of the prominent Kyiv International Institute of Sociology.

The generation of Ukrainians, born both in the west and the east of the country after it became independent, see themselves as a separate European nation that is not tied to the myths of the Soviet era and is indifferent to the Kremlin's pleas about the common past, the institute's director, Volodymyr Paniotto, told The Associated Press.

Paniotto said that Zelenskyy's generation, as well as younger Ukrainians, have a pro-Western mindset and will determine Ukraine's path for decades to come from the Soviet past to a European future.

Firefighter Serhiy Zhadko, 29, who came to watch the parade with his 7-year-old son, told the AP that Ukrainians had to (go through) two revolutions in order to finally choose their path to Europe, but were ready to defend our choice.

Yes, there are lots of problems in Ukraine, theres a war and poverty, but we look forward and not back on the Soviet past, Zhadko, 29, said.

NATO and the EU keep mum about when Ukraine can become a member, despite Kyiv's persistence. The EU only went as far as to sign a landmark Association Agreement with Ukraine in 2014, which stipulated free trade and visa-free travel between the two.

Ukraine's Western allies expect Kyiv to keep pushing reforms, including in the judiciary, and the creation of effective anti-corruption mechanisms that would stem the endemic graft in the country.

Ukrainian democracy is a work in progress which yet to learn the lessons of fighting corruption and to limit the influence of the oligarchs, Ukrainian political analyst and head of the Penta Center think tank Volodymyr Fesenko told the AP.

Western partners directly link the speed of (Ukraine's) integration into Euro-Atlantic blocs with success in reforms and the fight against corruption, he said.

Associated Press writer Daria Litvinova contributed to this report from Moscow.

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Ukraine leader stresses NATO, EU ties on independence day ...

A Ukrainian minister has claimed a passenger jet meant to evacuate people fleeing Afghanistan to Ukraine was hijacked at gunpoint and flown instead to Iran, in an unconfirmed incident that was later denied by his own government.

Ukraines deputy minister for foreign affairs, Yevhen Yenin, said armed hijackers seized the plane at Kabuls Hamid Karzai international airport, where a multinational evacuation is under way ahead of a 31 August deadline for foreign militaries to leave the country set by the Taliban.

Our plane was hijacked last Sunday by [unknown] people, Yenin told Ukrainian public radio. They were armed, including with firearms. On Tuesday, our plane was effectively stolen it flew to Iran with an unknown group of passengers onboard instead of carrying out the Ukrainians.

It was not immediately clear whether Yenin meant the incident occurred on 15 August, as the Taliban entered Kabul, or on 22 August, and why there was a two-day gap between the hijacking and flight.

A Ukrainian foreign ministry spokesperson later denied the claim, telling the local internet television station, Hromadske, that Yenin was trying to describe the difficulties faced by Ukrainian pilots during the evacuation of Kabul.

Ukraine has evacuated 256 citizens on three flights, the spokesperson said, adding that all aircraft being used to evacuate Ukrainian citizens from Afghanistan were currently in Ukraine.

An Iranian official also denied the hijacking claims, saying that the plane had landed in Mashhad, a city in the countrys north-east, for refuelling before continuing on to Kyiv.

FlightRadar data shows that a Ukrainian plane previously leased to the private Afghan airline Kam Air flew from Kabul to Mashhad on Monday, not Tuesday as Yenin said. Later on Monday, the plane flew from Mashhad to Kyiv, Flightradar data showed.

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Ukraine denies ministers claims of hijacked Afghanistan ...

Ukraines president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, could be forgiven for cursing his luck as the country celebrates the 30th anniversary of its independence from the former Soviet Union. On Tuesday, Mr Zelenskiy presided over a military parade in Kyiv, attended by an impressive array of dignitaries and heads of state. But in a week when he hoped to concentrate the minds of western allies on Russian bullying and intransigence, their focus is firmly on Afghanistan.

The struggle to stay on the diplomatic radar has become a familiar one. On Monday, Ukraine held an attention-seeking summit on Crimea, illegally annexed by Vladimir Putin in March 2014. The European Union, with which Ukraine signed an association agreement months later, imposed sanctions, and refuses to recognise the territory as part of Russia. At the summit, the European council president, Charles Michel, promised that the EU would continue to stand tall against such violations of international law. But in truth, the Russian annexation is a fait accompli that no one now expects to be reversed. Sending late apologies, Emmanuel Macron and Angela Merkel failed to appear at the event.

The frozen conflict in the Donbass region, where Russia-backed rebels have carved off a slice of the country and control Ukraines eastern border, is also at an impasse. In the spring, Mr Putin authorised a huge military build-up at the border that, though later withdrawn, was seen as an early test of Joe Bidens mettle. Mr Zelenskiy is due to meet Mr Biden in Washington next week. Ahead of that meeting, he has voiced his frustration over the wests reluctance to wave through Ukraines Nato membership, which would considerably raise the stakes of any Russian aggression. Ms Merkel, who did meet Mr Zelenskiy in Kyiv on Sunday, admitted that talks between Russia, Ukraine, France and Germany over the Donbass region have gone nowhere because of Mr Putins refusal to acknowledge Russian involvement in the conflict.

Given this context of blandishments from the west and sabre-rattling from the east, it is understandable that Ukraine has raised bitter objections to the soon-to-be completed Nord Stream 2 pipeline. Passing under the Baltic Sea, this will allow Russia to eventually bypass Ukraine when exporting gas to Germany, costing Kyiv billions of dollars in transit fees and potentially freeing Moscow to adopt a still more threatening posture towards its neighbour. Mr Biden, who had originally opposed the pipeline, dropped his objections last month, signing an agreement on its completion with Ms Merkel, who views it as an economic priority.

Ukraine thus has legitimate reasons to be critical of the level of support it is receiving from its powerful allies in the west. The debacle of the Afghanistan withdrawal and the continuing weakness of the EU as a geopolitical force will deepen the sense of insecurity. Last month, Mr Putin published a 5,000-word essay entitled On the Historical Unity of Russians and Ukrainians. The response from the west to Mr Putins perennial manoeuvring and mind games should amount to more than mixed messages.

This article was amended on 27 August 2021 to correct the spelling of Kyiv.

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The Guardian view on Ukraines independence celebration: shadowed by insecurity - The Guardian

Ukraine has initiated the strengthening of cooperation between the naval forces of the Black Sea countries and invites Romania and Moldova to join this initiative.

"Due to the active militarization of our Ukrainian Crimean peninsula, navigation and trade in the region are under threat. We must jointly address these present-day challenges. To this end, Ukraine has taken the initiative to strengthen cooperation between the Black Sea naval forces. We invite our colleagues, Romania and Moldova, which have access to the Black Sea, to join this initiative," Zelensky said in a joint statement by the presidents of Ukraine, Moldova, Poland, and Romania in Chisinau, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.

He also stressed that Ukraine had consistently advocated strengthening the presence of NATO members in the Black Sea region, expanding joint exercise and training programs.

As reported, President Volodymyr Zelensky is on a visit to Chisinau on Friday to mark the 30th anniversary of Moldova's independence.

Earlier, Zelensky stated that Ukraine should build a large fleet by 2035.

Photo credit: Presidents Office

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Ukraine invites Romania and Moldova to strengthen cooperation in Black Sea - Ukrinform. Ukraine and world news

For most of the 20th century Ukraine was part of the mighty USSR, but the country gained independence in 1991, after the breakup of the Soviet Union. Many people are surprised to discover that Ukraine is the largest country whose territory is wholly in Europe although the European part of Russia is more than six times larger.

Like its neighbours Romania, Poland and Belarus, Ukraine has a typically continental climate with very cold winters and warm sometimes hot summers. In the capital, Kyiv, in the north of the country, summer temperatures average in the mid-20s Celsius, while in winter the average temperature is just below freezing.

However, conditions often get much colder and hotter as low as -25C in winter and 35C in summer. The city of Odessa, on the shores of the Black Sea in the south, has a less extreme climate, with warmer and wetter summers than the north.

The disputed territory of the Crimean peninsula, annexed by Russia in 2014 but still considered by international observers to be part of Ukraine, is further south still, and almost surrounded by the Black Sea. As a result, it has a largely Mediterranean climate, with very warm summers and fairly mild winters. Crimea also experiences less rainfall than farther north, with less than 500mm (20in) of precipitation annually.

Excerpt from:
Weatherwatch: whats behind Ukraines varied climate? - The Guardian