Ukraine Celebrates 5 Years Of Freedom

From goose-stepping soldiers in military parades to farmers in fertile fields, millions of Ukrainians marked this former Soviet republic’s fifth Independence Day on Saturday.

War veterans, rock musicians and thousands of others thronged central Khreshchatik Street to watch the cream of Ukraine’s armed forces march beneath a river of blue-and-yellow flags.

The festivities marked the “Act of Independence” declared by Ukraine lawmakers on Aug. 24, 1991, in the tumultuous days after the failed hard-line coup against Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev.