August 24 should be a special day for all of Ukraine. The separatists in east Ukraine, especially in Donetsk, decided to celebrate Independence Day with a parade of Ukrainian POWs and stolen Ukraine military equipment through the city center on Lenin Street.
Did it this sickening show help DPR demoralize Ukraine? Don’t think so.Pic by Yevgeny Feldman. pic.twitter.com/o5lwMrRM05
— Leonid Ragozin (@leonidragozin) August 24, 2014
#Donetsk separatists’ anti-Independence Day display of captured #Ukraine military hardware on Lenin Square pic.twitter.com/jqcgE2kL8q
— Bojan Pancevski (@bopanc) August 24, 2014
Ukrainian POWs forced to march through #Donetsk today. RT @EvgenyFeldman: ? ??????? ????? ??????? ?????????? ?????? pic.twitter.com/U29aFp7BRB
— Christopher Miller (@ChristopherJM) August 24, 2014
And here are photos of the rebels parading POWs in Donetsk by Novaya Gazeta’s @EvgenyFeldman http://t.co/nYCNOWHRmS … pic.twitter.com/kjDrdCW6IX
— Courtney Weaver (@courtneymoscow) August 24, 2014
The majority of people in east Ukraine speak Russian and identify more with Russia. The Kyiv Post reported spectators yelled “Facists!” and “F*cking demons!” at the captured soldiers. Others threw “flour, eggs and bottles at the prisoners.” Another video showed a street cleaning machine behind the soldiers, which is “a clear reference to the march of captive German soldiers in Moscow in 1944, where a street cleaner symbolically washed the road after them.”
Completely emaciated #Russian lynchmob dying of hunger throwing eggs at #Ukrainian hostages in occupied #Donetsk pic.twitter.com/EtpLRikcJS
— East of Brussels (@EastOfBrussels) August 24, 2014
Putin’s vision for #Ukraine and its people ‘EMPR News #russiainvadesukraine pic.twitter.com/lfheDMgTC4
— Euromaidan PR (@EuromaidanPR) August 24, 2014
The crowd is gathering in front of the Lenin statute #Donetsk #Ukraine pic.twitter.com/kRA47Bia1Z
— Stefan Huijboom (@SHuijboom) August 24, 2014
“Donetsk died,” a priest said after his pleas not to hold a POW march fell on deaf ears.
Ole Solvang with Human Rights Watch said the POW parade violates the Geneva Convention.
Detainee parade in #Donetsk violates GVA convention, which prohibits “outrages upon personal dignity… humiliating and degrading treatment”
— Ole Solvang (@OleSolvang) August 24, 2014
Donetsk did not stop fighting. Residents and journalists tweeted during the day that shells hit hospitals and gunfire filled the air.
Ukrainian patients at Kalinina hospital basement after shelling in Donetsk, Aug 24, 2014. AFP Photo: Dimitar Dilkoff pic.twitter.com/96hvn6eR9k
— Agence France-Presse (@AFP) August 24, 2014
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