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Tanks thrust on Khreshchatyk Street, during a subject parade to observe Independence Day successful Kiev, Ukraine, Tuesday, Aug. 24, 2021. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)

KYIV – Ukraine's president connected Tuesday urged person ties betwixt the ex-Soviet federation and NATO and the European Union successful a code marking the 30th day of Ukraine's independence.

Ukraine celebrated its independency time connected Tuesday with a subject parade and monolithic festivities successful the superior Kyiv. Opening the parade, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that a beardown Ukraine is “a state that dreams ambitiously and acts decisively.”

“Such a state becomes NATO's Enhanced Opportunities Partner; specified a state is officially supported by others erstwhile it applies to articulation the European Union," Zelenskyy said.

Ukraine didn't officially go autarkic until the illness of the Soviet Union successful December 1991. But similar astir of the 15 erstwhile Soviet republics, it declared its sovereignty instantly after the failed hard-line coup against reformist Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev.

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On Aug. 24, 1991, the Ukrainian parliament adopted the Act of Declaration of Independence of Ukraine, reestablishing the country’s independency aft much than 70 years of being portion of the Soviet Union. Less than 4 months later, Boris Yeltsin and leaders of different Soviet republics declared the Soviet Union defunct and Gorbachev stepped down connected Dec. 25, 1991.

The 30th day of Ukraine's independency came arsenic the state is locked successful a bitter tug-of-war with Russia, which successful 2014 annexed Crimea and has since been backing a separatist insurgency successful eastbound Ukraine, and Kyiv’s efforts to enactment up enactment among Western nations.

“Territories whitethorn beryllium occupied, but 1 can't inhabit the people's emotion for Ukraine. One tin make a hopeless concern and marque radical get (Russian) passports, but 1 can't contented passports for their Ukrainian hearts,” Zelenskyy said Tuesday. “If immoderate radical successful Crimea and Donbass (region successful eastbound Ukraine, controlled by Russia-backed separatists) are acrophobic to speech astir it, it doesn't mean they are acrophobic to deliberation astir it. They volition travel back, due to the fact that we're family.”

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Delegations from 46 countries and blocs, including 14 presidents, attended the parade successful Kyiv. The time before, they took portion successful the Crimean Platform acme called by Ukraine to physique up unit connected Russia implicit the 2014 annexation of Crimea that has been denounced arsenic amerciable by astir of the world.

The halfway of Kyiv connected Tuesday turned into a ample venue for concerts and different festive events marking the anniversary. Thousands of radical flocked to the cardinal Maidan square, which implicit the past 30 years has been a rallying constituent for Ukrainians.

The fashionable uprising of 2013-2014, which ousted pro-Russia President Viktor Yanukovych and triggered the years-long confrontation with Moscow, started connected Maidan square.

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Associated Press writer Daria Litvinova contributed from Moscow.

Copyright 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This worldly whitethorn not beryllium published, broadcast, rewritten oregon redistributed without permission.