(24 Aug 2014) A top rebel commander on Sunday taunted the Ukrainian government after pro-Russian separatists paraded captured Ukrainian troops along the streets of the eastern city of Donetsk, just as independence day celebrations took place in the capital, Kiev.
"Kiev said that on the 24th, on the Independence Day of Ukraine, they would have a parade. Indeed, they did march in Donetsk,
although it wasn't a parade," said Alexander Zakharchenko, the prime minister of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic.
"Soldiers of the armed forces of Kiev walked along the main streets of Donetsk. What Poroshenko planned has taken place," he said.
The rival demonstrations on Ukraine's 23rd anniversary of independence from the Soviet Union underscored the bitter divisions in the country after five months of fighting.
As President Petro Poroshenko addressed a highly militarised independence rally in Kiev, pro-Russian rebels responded with their own show of strength in their stronghold of Donetsk, parading dozens of Ukrainian captives through the streets as bystanders threw eggs and bottles at them.
Some of the captives were dressed in military fatigues, while others wore tattered civilian clothes.
As they were marched through a central square, several hundred onlookers shouted abuse at them.
In recent weeks, Kiev's troops have scored heavy gains in territory and encircled the east's regional capitals of Luhansk and Donetsk.


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