Rows of people join in to hold a six-meter blue and yellow Ukrainian flag on Mykhailivsky Square in the center of Kyiv on Aug. 23, Ukraine’s State Flag Day, as children jubilantly marvel at the spectacle (left).
Ukraine celebrated its 19th birthday the next day.
President Viktor Yanukovych solemnly bows at a welcoming ceremony of bread and salt during the opening of the newly renovated Taras Shevchenko museum in Kaniv, Cherkssy Oblast on Aug. 23 where the bard is buried on the bank of the Dnipro River.
Guests are traditionally welcomed with bread and salt in Slavic culture.
Back in Kyiv, supporters of former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko greet her during a rally in Kyiv’s Shevchenko Park on the occasion of Ukraine’s 19th Independence Day on Aug. 24.
Tymoshenko has been mostly absent from the public spotlight this summer while some of her former cabinet members have been investigated or jailed for alleged criminal activities following a no-confidence vote in parliament in March.
Activists of Femen, a nongovernmental organization that promotes women’s rights, take part in a bike parade during Independence Day celebrations.
The girls usually demonstrate bare-chested, which they say symbolizes liberty and independence.
