Zelensky spoke of unity and insisted the nation “won’t let Ukrainian independence slip out of Ukrainian fingers.” Individuals walked by the streets wearing vyshyvankas — conventional embroidered shirts — and visited a brand new show of seized Russian navy {hardware}. Spirits had been lifted barely by information that Ukrainian forces had raised a flag within the contested southern village of Robotyne on Wednesday and landed in Russian-occupied Crimea early Thursday, the place they carried out a particular operation and in addition flew the Ukrainian flag.
However as all the time, the undertones of struggling had been unavoidable.
A 34-year-old soldier who goes by the decision signal “Jackson” attended the morning ceremony in help of his commander, who was amongst these receiving medals from Zelensky for his or her braveness on the entrance line.
They’re serving within the nation’s east — the identical area the place a 2015 mine blast in a Russian-backed separatist battle left Jackson with 24 items of shrapnel embedded in his physique. Even now, nearly a decade later, his close-shaved hair reveals a big scar working down the precise facet of his head. The titanium plate docs positioned inside “is the worth I paid for liberty,” he mentioned.
His damage may have made him exempt from serving once more. However he signed as much as battle final yr anyway. Since then, he has hardly seen his two daughters, 9 and three, however he’s serving, he mentioned, to make sure they develop up free.
“I don’t need them to have this similar expertise,” he mentioned. “If we don’t end this battle now, they must.”
As quickly because the ceremony was over, he mentioned, he could be driving his commander again to the entrance.
Anna Bondaruk, 25, mom of Maksym, the 6-year-old within the ceremony, mentioned it was a “exhausting day.”
“He is aware of every thing in regards to the battle,” she mentioned as she held Maksym — wearing a conventional blue-and-white Ukrainian shirt — on her lap. “He is aware of what occurred to his father.”
His grandmother, Maria, 45, mentioned the ceremony was an opportunity for him “to keep in mind that his father did a terrific factor.”
Oleksii Chechyn, a 24-year-old farmer, mentioned his go to to Kyiv to obtain a medal made him “be happy” after months of occupation and hospital visits. He was shot within the leg by Russian troops at shut vary final yr as he launched into a secretive resistance mission within the southern area of Mykolaiv. On Thursday, he moved towards Zelensky with out utilizing his crutch — the primary time he had walked on his personal since he was shot 11 months in the past. “My physician mentioned I might perceive once I was prepared. At this time, I understood it was this second,” he mentioned, beaming.
However Lyubov Konovalenko, 26, a senior medic within the Aydar Battalion who additionally acquired a medal Thursday and is at present stationed simply exterior Bakhmut, mentioned she felt uncomfortable attending festivities in Kyiv when her fellow troopers had been nonetheless underneath fireplace on the entrance line.
She is initially from the southern metropolis of Berdyansk, which is now underneath Russian occupation.
“We all know we’re combating because of this, so individuals can dwell right here,” she mentioned of Kyiv. However typically, she mentioned, it feels as if “individuals in cities like this overlook there’s a battle.”
Even for these whose lives might seem untouched, the ache is usually lurking slightly below the floor.
Newlyweds Daryna and Yevgen Herasymenko, 23 and 25, walked joyfully hand-in-hand by the streets of central Kyiv on Thursday — she in a marriage robe and veil, he in a tan swimsuit. They had been married final month however had solely simply taken their wedding ceremony images, and the event felt bittersweet.
Ten days in the past, that they had buried Daryna’s 26-year-old brother, Oleksii, who was killed combating in Ukraine’s counteroffensive within the southern Zaporizhzhia area.
Yevgen gently wiped tears from his bride’s face as she described how they discovered on the ultimate day of their honeymoon that Oleksii had died. He had disappeared in early July, however that they had held out hope he may nonetheless be alive — till his physique was returned by Russian troops in a swap this month. That have “makes you consider it’s worthwhile to dwell your life to the fullest and never really feel such as you missed out on something,” Yevgen mentioned.
A number of blocks away, tons of of individuals wandered by the show of seized Russian tools on one of many capital’s predominant thruways.
Amongst them had been Yana Zadorozhna and her husband, Ivan Zadorozhniy, who’re anticipating a child boy on Sept. 20. Zadorozhna wore a conventional Ukrainian gown and her husband a T-shirt depicting a HIMARS, the long-range artillery system provided to Ukraine final yr by the US. Their Jack Russell terrier, Cocos, wore a custom-made vyshyvanka. Regardless of pleas by Zadorozhna’s mom to contemplate going overseas to have the child, they plan to ship in Kyiv.
“It was a aware determination to present start in Ukraine and never someplace else,” Zadorozhna mentioned. “We love our nation deeply.”
Close by, psychologist Yana Gorbunova strolled by the show together with her daughters Amira, 17, and Katya, 4.
The youthful one, she mentioned, already talks incessantly about becoming a member of the military when she grows up. “I don’t assume it needs to be like this at 4½ years previous,” she mentioned. “She is aware of what an alarm is, she is aware of why they’re working to a shelter.”
The battle, she mentioned, is in all places they give the impression of being.
Quickly after, an air-raid siren wailed, signaling a possible strike on Kyiv. Police biked by the streets, urging civilians to search out exhausting cowl. The identical crowds that had simply joyfully posed for selfies rushed to cover.
Heidi Levine contributed to this report.
