Thousands of Ukrainians march against a troop pullback

AFP, 14TH OTOBER, 2019 - Thousands of Ukrainians marched in Kiev on Monday, decrying as “capitulation” a mooted pullback of troops fighting Moscow-backed separatists in the east and calling for victory in the five-year war.

Several thousand people, many of them veterans of the conflict in eastern Ukraine, marched through central Kiev with burning flares, singing the national anthem and chanting slogans against President Volodymyr Zelensky.

It was the second of two marches in Kiev on Monday, a national holiday that has been designated as “Defenders Day”. Protesters later gathered on Kiev’s Independence Square.

October 14 also marks the anniversary of the foundation of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA), a group of nationalists who fought against Soviet troops in World War II alongside Nazi forces, and are accused of slaughtering Poles and Jews.

Nationalist forces traditionally hold marches on this day, with many former fighters in the eastern Ukraine conflict among the demonstrators, as well as supporters of nationalist party Svoboda.

Police said that around 6,000 people including war veterans and nationalists took part in a similar event earlier Monday.

Protesters chanted “No to capitulation!”, “ukraine above all” and “Russian language today, Russian tanks tomorrow”.

The protests came after about 10,000 people including Ukraine’s former president Petro Poroshenko demonstrated this month against

Police said that around 6,000 people including war veterans and nationalists took part in a similar event earlier Monday

a plan for broader autonomy for separatist territories ahead of a highstakes summit with Russian leader Vladimir Putin.

Zelensky on Monday visited troops in the war-ravaged eastern Donetsk region where he met with commanders and awarded servicemen. He called the 2014 Crimea annexation and the conflict with separatists Ukraine’s “moments of truth”.

“A nation only has two ways in these moments, to surrender and disappear from the face of the Earth, or to be born the second time,” he said in a speech.

Zelensky wants to hold Westernmediated talks with Putin in Paris in an effort to revive a stalled peace process.

But those efforts have stalled as Kiev forces and separatist fighters have so far failed to pull back troops along the frontline.

In the run-up to the summit, negotiators agreed on a roadmap that envisages special status for separatist territories if they conduct free and fair elections under the Ukrainian constitution. But critics say the proposal favours Russia.

Protesters in Kiev said they saw any summit with Putin as a loss for Ukraine.