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Ukraine’s Independence Day marked with anti-Russian and anti-Communist slogans in Odessa

According to the organizers of the march, they thus "paid homage to the memories of those killed during the war in Donbas"

Security forces in Odessa (archive) Andrey Malinovsky/TASS

Security forces in Odessa (archive)

© Andrey Malinovsky/TASS

ODESSA, August 24. /TASS/. Radical nationalists in the Black Sea port of Odessa have marked Ukraine’s Independence Day with the march along the city’s central streets. Hundreds of supporters of the Svoboda party, the Maidan Self-Defense and AutoMaidan movements chanted anti-Russian and anti-Communist slogans.

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According to the organizers of the march, they thus "paid homage to the memories of those killed during the war in Donbas."

The march was accompanied by reinforced police squads. No breaches of public order were reported.

Celebrations are held across Ukraine on Monday in connection with Independence Day, which it marks for the second time amid the military operation in the east of the country. In Kiev, the so-called March of Unity was held bringing together more than 2,500 military servicemen and cadets of military schools.

Independence Day was celebrated in the Donbas region as well. Residents of Donetsk held a rally titled "Ukraine’s Independence Day," with about 5,000 people taking part in it. A little later they sent a letter on behalf of the entire Donbas region with a demand to President Petro Poroshenko to stop the hostilities in the region.

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