Military show in Kyiv on occasion of Independence Day.

A military parade was held in Kyiv on August 24th on occasion of the 18th anniversary of Ukraine's independence. Around 20 samples of armament and military equipment including tank “Oplot”, S-300 anti-aircraft system, armoured troop-carriers “Cossack”, “Ladya” and “Dozor-B” have been displayed along the Khreschatyk Street from Independence Square to European Square. Around 3,400 of military men and law-enforcers have marched along Khreschatyk Street. Eighteen military bands were playing during the parade. Besides, a total of 35 aircraft, including fighters, bombers, attack planes, eight helicopters and three civil aircraft, flew over the city. At 10p.m. festive fireworks were fired in Kyiv, Sevastopol, Odesa, Kerch, Vinnytsia, Lviv, Zhytomyr, Rivne and Dnipropetrovsk. This has been the fifth Independence Day parade involving military hardware in Ukraine over the years of independence. Similar events took place in 1998, 1999, 2001 and 2008. Other parades to mark the Independence Day were held without military weaponry, except for 2005, when there was no military parade at all. 45 pictures taken during the parade in 2008 and 2009 by gifted photographers of news agencies KyivPost and Associated Press now are available at
http://picasaweb.google.ru/Poltavabloggen/IndependenceDay2009KyivUkraine