You're reading: Associated Press: Ukraine vows to increase troops to fend off rebel attacks

Ukraine's president vowed to increase troop numbers to fend off attacks by Russia-backed separatist rebels and warned his countrymen that there is still the threat of a "large-scale invasion," in an impassioned speech to mark Independence Day on Aug. 24.

Speaking during a military parade, President Petro Poroshenko said Ukraine must not be complacent even though hostilities have largely died down. In a show of force, thousands of Ukrainian servicemen marched in downtown Kyiv to commemorate the country's independence from the Soviet Union on Aug. 24, 1991.

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