Kiev: Ukraine celebrated the national Day of Unity to consolidate people amid the looming crisis in the country.
In a televised address to the nation Wednesday, President Volodymyr Zelensky said that Ukrainians are different, but they all are united by the desire to live in peace, happiness and with their loved ones, reports Xinhua news agency.
“We are all united by one desire: to live in peace, happily, as one family, with children, with parents. And we have every right to all this. Because we are at home, we are in Ukraine,” Zelensky said.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said that Ukrainians mark the Day of Unity to show the “friends and enemies” that Ukraine is united even in hard times.
“Ukrainians have rejected their differences and are uniting in the face of possible threats. For a successful future. We know how to do it, and our unity is our best weapon,” Shmyhal wrote on his official Telegram channel.
Within the framework of the celebrations, Ukrainian enthusiasts unfolded a 200-metre-long national flag at the Olympic stadium in Kiev.
The blue-and-yellow flags were waved on government buildings, private houses and cars across the country to show the unity of the people.
Children in many schools and kindergartens were asked to wear vyshyvanka, traditional Ukrainian ethnic clothing decorated with embroidery patterns.
In addition, the Infrastructure Ministry launched the Train of Unity from Ukraine’s western city of Rakhiv to the eastern city of Mariupol that carried the flag through different regions across the country.
The ambassadors of the European Union countries laid flowers on the Wall of Remembrance in Kiev to mark the Day of Unity, showing their support for Ukraine, and paying tribute to all who have fallen in the conflict in eastern Ukraine since 2014.
Some Western media had claimed that Russia could invade Ukraine on February 16.
Moscow, which has amassed well over 100,000 troops near the border, has repeatedly denied any plans to invade Ukraine.
Earlier Wednesday, Defence Minister Olexiy Reznikov said that the situation on the Ukrainian borders remains stable.