The Ukrainian Culture Ministry has drawn up a preliminary plan for Independence Day celebrations in Kyiv on August 24 and hopes that the activists still staying on Independence Square (Maidan) will not be in the way of Kyiv residents wishing to celebrate the holiday, Culture Minister Yevhen Nischuk said.
“We are in limbo because of the situation on Maidan, but we have a preliminary plan,” Nischuk said at a press conference in Kyiv on Aug. 8.
The morning of August 24 will begin with a ceremony of laying flowers at the monuments to Taras Shevchenko and Mykhailo Hrushevsky and also to the cross dedicated to the Heavenly Hundred, i.e. the activists killed during the Euromaidan protest events during winter 2013-2014. After that, a parade of troops is expected on Independence Square.
“There could possibly be some [military] vehicles and possibly some aviation, but it’s the Defense Ministry that is taking care of this,” Nischuk said.
The celebrations will continue with a prayer for peace and for Ukraine on St. Sofia Square.
There are also plans to present Shevchenko Awards to laureates.
In the evening, the Mystetsky Arsenal will be a venue of an informal reception, and Maidan will host a concert of performers, who earlier participated in concerts for Ukrainian servicemen in the eastern part of the country.
