40 days since
the day when over 85 people lost their lives, shot by their government for
being in Maidan. Since Feb 18th, there are over 100 people dead and
1,500 wounded.
Today,
simultaneously at 13:00, in six Ukrainian airports (Lviv, Kyiv, Kharkiv, Donetsk, Odesa and
Dnipropetrovsk),
musicians of National orchestras played in honour of those killed, the
‘Heavenly Hundred’ and police officers, between Feb 18th and 20th
in the Maidan. The project, called ‘Our common air’ united orchestras of these
cities to play or sing Ode to Joy (the anthem of the European Union) and the
Ukrainian national anthem. This action was a memorial, as well as an effort to
demonstrate solidarity and unity throughout Ukraine.
Thousands of
people attended rallies in honour of those killed in Odessa, Kharkiv, Luhansk,
and other cities. In Kyiv, at the rally in the Maidan (Independence Square), it
was announced that there are still over 150 people reported as missing since
Feb. 20th.
The memorial
demonstration in Odessa turned into an anti-Russian invasion march, where a 1km
long Ukrainian flag was unfurled. It was estimated that around 5-6 thousand
people converged with signs that read "Odessa - Ukraine",
"Odessa - for the integrity of Ukraine", "Ukraine - the only
country", "One single unified Ukraine", etc. People chanted
"Odessa - not Russia," "glory - Ukraine, heroes - glory,"
"Heroes do not die," "One of the only major Ukraine",
"Putin out," "East and West - together. " It is reported
that there were some clashes with a counter-protest of pro-Russian, anti-Maidan
activists.
And as European clocks moved one hour
forward for spring, in Crimea clocks moved two hours forward to join a Russian
time zone.
In Sevastopol at the National University of
Nuclear Energy and Industry a ceremony of lowering the national flag of Ukraine
and the raising of the flag of Russia was held. During the removal of the
national flag of Ukraine a significant portion of the students continued
singing the national anthem of Ukraine after the soundtrack cut, and walked off
the grounds holding Ukrainian flags whilst the Russian anthem played/Russian
flag was raised above the main University building. Prior to this event, the
rector the University, Myhaylo Divizinyuk, was dismissed from his post because he
refused to have the Russian flag raised above the university and to move into
the legal framework of the Russian Federation.
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