You're reading: Ukrainians celebrate Unity Day

Accompanied by former presidents Leonid Kuchma and Leonid Kravchuk, President Viktor Yanukovych kicked off the national holiday at a wreath-laying ceremony at the Taras Shevchenko monument before attending a televised gala concert at the Palace of Ukraine.

The Unity Day (Den Sobornosti) holiday celebrates Ukraine’s short-lived national independence following World War I on Jan. 22, 1919.

Opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko, meanwhile, congratulated more than 5,000 supporters on St. Sophia Square in the center of Kyiv. Other political leaders, including Front for Change Party head Arseniy Yatsenyuk and Sobor Party boss Anatoliy Matviyenko joined Our Ukraine party leaders on Kyiv’s Kontraktova Square to assemble a large puzzle of Ukraine.

At the Palace of Ukraine, Yanukovych said opposition leaders are trying to split the country. He said it is time for politicians “to gather stones,” not throw them. He also accused critics of talking about political repression in an attempt to discredit Ukraine internationally: “Opposition leaders are again calling people to the barricades, trying to demonstrate that part of the population supports patriots and democrats, while the rest take orders from their antipodes.”

Tymoshenko called on Ukrainians to unite to get rid of the current leaders, referring to them as “a political amalgamation of arrogant people.” Flanked by Filaret, the Patriarch of Kyiv and All Rus, she urged Ukrainians to pray for the country’s salvation.

Former Prime Minister and opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko attends a rally in Kyiv.

A man dressed in traditional Ukrainian Cossack’s clothes speaks during a rally to mark National Unity Day in Kyiv.

Serhiy Melnychenko (R), who heads the Committee of Participants of the Orange Revolution, on Jan. 22 leads a protest in front of the Interior Ministry in Kyiv.

Photos by Yaroslav Debelyi, AP