Nine-year-old Viktor Volkov lit a candle on a windy afternoon on Kyiv’s Maidan Nezalezhnosti on Jan. 18, when thousands of Ukrainians hit the streets to commemorate the 13 people killed in a Kremlin-backed act of terror in Volnovakha.
The killings happened on Jan. 13, when Kremlin-backed separatists fired a Grad missile launcher that hit a passenger bus near a Ukrainian-controlled checkpoint close to Volnovakha in Donetsk Oblast. Besides the 13 people killed, another 16 were wounded.
Volkov’s mother, Natalia, said her son worries a lot about the situation in the country.
“He couldn’t sit quietly near the TV when he listens to the news, and he encouraged me to come here today,” Natalia Volkova, who works in a kindergarten in Kyiv, explains.
It’s not the first rally for Viktor, who was an active EuroMaidan Revolution supporter along with his mother, and he says he’s proud to attend this one the most.
Volkova believes it’s important to show the children what patriotism means.
“I think we gathered here today to show the word that we are united in our goals. However, we are all alone – because the world leaders are only ‘concerned,’ especially now when we are facing the enemy.”
In all, up to 20,000 people gathered for the rally in Kyiv.
Hundreds also joined peace marches in the Ukrainian cities of Dnipropetrovsk, Kharkiv, Kramatorsk, Volnovakha, Lviv and Odesa. Internationally, Ukrainian communities in Paris, Rome, Frankfurt, London and other cities also held rallies.
Ukraine’s President Petro Poroshenko and First Lady Maryna Poroshenko also took part in a rally that started at noon.
“Thousands of people from Zakarpattya to Luhansk, Donetsk oblasts gather on Independence Square today to pray for the innocent victims,” Poroshenko said in his address. “Our enemy wants us to get used to the horrible statistics, but that will never happen. We remember every Ukrainian hero who gave his life for territory integrity and independence.”
Poroshenko said the rally has “historical importance” as it is held on Maidan Nezalezhnosti where the EuroMaidan Revolution that ousted ex-President Viktor Yanukovych began in November.
“We proved to be a truly European country,” Poroshenko stressed in his speech. “Today the whole world stands with us. However, even at this very moment Ukrainian ‘cyborgs’ (the servicemen who defend Donetsk airport) show us a heroic example of courage and patriotism. We will never give a piece of our land to insurgents!”
Another group of activists gathered on Mykhailivska Square to take part in a peace march.
People chanted “Heroes don’t die” and “Putin is a fascist!” Most of them were holding Ukrainians flags and posters with the signs “Je suis Volnovakha” (I am Volnovakha) and “Je suis Donbas.” The members of Azov and Donbas volunteer battalions also were spotted in the crowd.
Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko, his brother Wladimir, European Union Ambassdor to Ukraine Jan Tombinski and French Ambassador to Ukraine Alain Remy also joined the rally.
“Peaceful people die because someone came up with the idea of destabilizing the situation in the country,” Klitschko said in his address. “We understand that without money, arms and media support from our neighbor this situation would never have occurred.”
EuroMaidan Revolution activists also showed up at the square, including Mykola Bondar, one of the EuroMaidan self-defense units leaders. Also, the activists wrote on their Facebook event page that they want to recognize the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk republics as terrorist organizations.
Larysa Halchenko came to Mykhalivska Square with her friends and a daughter because she is certain many world leaders don’t understand what’s going on in Ukraine.
“We need to show the world that Russia keeps invading Ukraine,” Halchenko said. “Look, in France 11 people have been killed – and this tragedy caught such an attention, while in Ukraine people die every single day and still many people believe it’s a civil war.”
Halchenko’s daughter, Ksenia, believes such rally should be a symbolic wake-up call for all the people who still think the war in the east of Ukraine has nothing to do with their lives.
“Our relatives in Luhansk live as if nothing has happened,” Ksenia Zhuravleva-Halchenko, says. “But anyone of us could have been in that bus in Volnovakha. We just need to keep that in mind all the time.”
The column walked down to European Square, passed Hrushevskoho Street and headed towards the Maidan, or Independence Square, by Instytutska Street.
The activists pass Hrushevskoho Street and head towards Maidan Nezalezhnosti to commemorate the victims of a Kremlin-backed act of terror in Volnovakha in Kyiv on Jan. 18.
The activists knelt for a minute of silence to remember the more than 100 people killed in the EuroMaidan Revolution.
Nguyen Minh Tri, Vietnam ambassador to Ukraine, who also joined the column of the activists, says it was very important for him to participate in the rally.
“We show that we’re united against the terrorism,” the ambassador told the Kyiv Post. “Vietnam people understand Ukrainians – now we just want peace to come back to Ukraine.”
