Ukraine rebels parade prisoners

DONETSK, Ukraine -- On a day when Ukrainians celebrated their independence from the Soviet Union with parades and speeches, pro-Russia separatists in the eastern part of the country staged a grim counter-spectacle -- a parade that mocked the national army and celebrated the death and imprisonment of its soldiers.

Leading the procession was an attractive, young blond woman carrying an assault rifle, followed by several dozen captured Ukrainian soldiers: filthy, bruised and unkempt. Their heads were shaved, they wore fetid camouflage uniforms, and they looked down at their feet as they walked.

Onlookers shouted that the men should be shot, and they pelted the prisoners with empty water bottles and rolls of toilet paper as they stumbled down Artyomovsk Street, Donetsk's main thoroughfare. A loudspeaker played Tchaikovsky's Slavonic March, a familiar Russian patriotic piece.

Behind the prisoners were two tank trucks spraying soapy water, demonstratively cleaning the pavement where the Ukrainian soldiers had passed.

People in the crowd shouted at the soldiers, and separatist fighters held back a man who tried to punch a prisoner.

The public parading and abuse of the wounded, disheveled soldiers seemed to offend few of those watching the parade. "Shoot them!" one woman yelled.

"They are attacking our city," said Tonya Koralova, 46, a nurse who watched the men pass. "They are fascists. I am in favor of this parade."

The anti-independence day parade staged by the main rebel group in eastern Ukraine, the Donetsk People's Republic, was one of its most provocative public affronts to the Ukrainian government to date. It contrasted sharply with the traditional military parade in Kiev, the capital, where soldiers from the national army crisply saluted both the president and crowds of cheering citizens on Sunday.

President Petro Poroshenko, who is due to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Belarus on Tuesday, warned of a long struggle ahead against "insidious treachery."

"The events of the last months have pushed us into a real war, albeit an undeclared one," Poroshenko said. "Over the last six months, a new Ukrainian army has been born in heavy and exhausting fighting."

Poroshenko said in his speech that Ukraine, which is nearly bankrupt, would, nonetheless, spend nearly $3 billion over the next three years to re-equip its army.

"It is clear that in the foreseeable future, unfortunately, a constant military threat will hang over Ukraine," he said.

The rebels in Donetsk displayed wrecked armored vehicles, lined up in the city's Lenin Square. Together with the march of the prisoners, they made the event the macabre antithesis of a celebration of martial glory, as onlookers peered into the demolished, incinerated hulks where Ukrainian army crews had met their deaths.

The Geneva Conventions' rules for the treatment of prisoners of war prohibit parading them in public.

The presence of the prisoners in the parade appeared intended to boost morale in the besieged city, to mock the Ukrainian army and to dissuade the Ukrainian forces outside the city from firing any artillery rounds at the provocative gathering. The spectacle drew a crowd of several hundred people.

Oleg Kolpakov, 46, a plumber, said he opposed the idea of forcing prisoners to walk through the streets, but he still wanted to watch.

"I'm curious what they look like," he said.

A separatist fighter standing nearby, who gave only his first name, Vitaly, said the point was to show how humanely the prisoners were being treated. "We keep them on cots and feed them three times a day," he said. Still, such parading violates international law, on both sides.

Ukraine's military has stepped up its drive to clear the rebels from their remaining major strongholds, encircling the cities of Luhansk and Donetsk. Earlier on Sunday, artillery pounded rebel-held towns including Donets. Ukrainian news media reported that more than 60 artillery volleys were fired overnight Saturday and into Sunday.

Information for this article was contributed by Andrew Higgins of The New York Times.

A Section on 08/25/2014

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