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“Je Suis Volnovakha” Rally

Jan 20, 2015 | Newpathway, Ukraine, Featured

Larysa Zariczniak, Kyiv.

On January 18, 2015 thousands of people came out for a unity rally after the separatists’ Grad missile killed 13 civilians and wounded 20 others on a bus outside of Volnovakha, Donetsk on January 13. Many held signs indicating their frustration with the Ukrainian authorities, their distaste for the Russian leadership or simply “Je Suis Volnovakha” – indicating their sympathies to the innocent lives lost in this Ukrainian-Russian war.

While a united rally was an ideal way to show the country united in the fight against the terrorists, it wasn’t a very united march. There were three different rallies organized by different organizations. The first began Taras Shevchenko Park, ended at the Maidan and was attended by President Poroshenko, Prime Minister Yatseniuk, the religious and military leaders. The second rally was attended by Kyiv Mayor Klitschko and began at Mykhailvska Square. This rally looked the largest and also wound up on the Maidan. The third also finished on the Maidan. If you wanted to go into a café and warm yourself up, you might have come out to join a different rally without even realizing it.

The crowds were mixed: soldiers, civilians, old and young. As were the messages: peace, war, unity and diversity. The goal was genuine though – to show the world that Ukraine is united. That message was voiced by President Poroshenko when he said that “Ukraine has shown that it is as united as ever”. In his speech he remembered the civilians lost during the war and reinforced his position that Ukraine will take back all the land lost to the separatists, including the Crimea.

The exact numbers in attendance for the rallies will be hard to calculate – in total, there were several thousands of people. While it was overall, a bit disorganized – the people who were in attendance in central Kyiv (and I’m sure this is also true for the other Ukrainian cities who had their own unity rallies) came out to support their country and to say to the world that Ukraine will be one, undivided state. The rallies also took place on the same day the Ukrainian army began to take back areas around Donetsk Airport: maybe Poroshenko’s speech was onto something?

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