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Ukraines president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, could be forgiven for cursing his luck as the country celebrates the 30th anniversary of its independence from the former Soviet Union. On Tuesday, Mr Zelenskiy presided over a military parade in Kyiv, attended by an impressive array of dignitaries and heads of state. But in a week when he hoped to concentrate the minds of western allies on Russian bullying and intransigence, their focus is firmly on Afghanistan.

The struggle to stay on the diplomatic radar has become a familiar one. On Monday, Ukraine held an attention-seeking summit on Crimea, illegally annexed by Vladimir Putin in March 2014. The European Union, with which Ukraine signed an association agreement months later, imposed sanctions, and refuses to recognise the territory as part of Russia. At the summit, the European council president, Charles Michel, promised that the EU would continue to stand tall against such violations of international law. But in truth, the Russian annexation is a fait accompli that no one now expects to be reversed. Sending late apologies, Emmanuel Macron and Angela Merkel failed to appear at the event.

The frozen conflict in the Donbass region, where Russia-backed rebels have carved off a slice of the country and control Ukraines eastern border, is also at an impasse. In the spring, Mr Putin authorised a huge military build-up at the border that, though later withdrawn, was seen as an early test of Joe Bidens mettle. Mr Zelenskiy is due to meet Mr Biden in Washington next week. Ahead of that meeting, he has voiced his frustration over the wests reluctance to wave through Ukraines Nato membership, which would considerably raise the stakes of any Russian aggression. Ms Merkel, who did meet Mr Zelenskiy in Kyiv on Sunday, admitted that talks between Russia, Ukraine, France and Germany over the Donbass region have gone nowhere because of Mr Putins refusal to acknowledge Russian involvement in the conflict.

Given this context of blandishments from the west and sabre-rattling from the east, it is understandable that Ukraine has raised bitter objections to the soon-to-be completed Nord Stream 2 pipeline. Passing under the Baltic Sea, this will allow Russia to eventually bypass Ukraine when exporting gas to Germany, costing Kyiv billions of dollars in transit fees and potentially freeing Moscow to adopt a still more threatening posture towards its neighbour. Mr Biden, who had originally opposed the pipeline, dropped his objections last month, signing an agreement on its completion with Ms Merkel, who views it as an economic priority.

Ukraine thus has legitimate reasons to be critical of the level of support it is receiving from its powerful allies in the west. The debacle of the Afghanistan withdrawal and the continuing weakness of the EU as a geopolitical force will deepen the sense of insecurity. Last month, Mr Putin published a 5,000-word essay entitled On the Historical Unity of Russians and Ukrainians. The response from the west to Mr Putins perennial manoeuvring and mind games should amount to more than mixed messages.

This article was amended on 27 August 2021 to correct the spelling of Kyiv.

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The Guardian view on Ukraines independence celebration: shadowed by insecurity - The Guardian

Ukraine has initiated the strengthening of cooperation between the naval forces of the Black Sea countries and invites Romania and Moldova to join this initiative.

"Due to the active militarization of our Ukrainian Crimean peninsula, navigation and trade in the region are under threat. We must jointly address these present-day challenges. To this end, Ukraine has taken the initiative to strengthen cooperation between the Black Sea naval forces. We invite our colleagues, Romania and Moldova, which have access to the Black Sea, to join this initiative," Zelensky said in a joint statement by the presidents of Ukraine, Moldova, Poland, and Romania in Chisinau, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.

He also stressed that Ukraine had consistently advocated strengthening the presence of NATO members in the Black Sea region, expanding joint exercise and training programs.

As reported, President Volodymyr Zelensky is on a visit to Chisinau on Friday to mark the 30th anniversary of Moldova's independence.

Earlier, Zelensky stated that Ukraine should build a large fleet by 2035.

Photo credit: Presidents Office

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Ukraine invites Romania and Moldova to strengthen cooperation in Black Sea - Ukrinform. Ukraine and world news

For most of the 20th century Ukraine was part of the mighty USSR, but the country gained independence in 1991, after the breakup of the Soviet Union. Many people are surprised to discover that Ukraine is the largest country whose territory is wholly in Europe although the European part of Russia is more than six times larger.

Like its neighbours Romania, Poland and Belarus, Ukraine has a typically continental climate with very cold winters and warm sometimes hot summers. In the capital, Kyiv, in the north of the country, summer temperatures average in the mid-20s Celsius, while in winter the average temperature is just below freezing.

However, conditions often get much colder and hotter as low as -25C in winter and 35C in summer. The city of Odessa, on the shores of the Black Sea in the south, has a less extreme climate, with warmer and wetter summers than the north.

The disputed territory of the Crimean peninsula, annexed by Russia in 2014 but still considered by international observers to be part of Ukraine, is further south still, and almost surrounded by the Black Sea. As a result, it has a largely Mediterranean climate, with very warm summers and fairly mild winters. Crimea also experiences less rainfall than farther north, with less than 500mm (20in) of precipitation annually.

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Weatherwatch: whats behind Ukraines varied climate? - The Guardian

During March and April 2021, the Russian military conducted a large-scale buildup in its regions bordering Ukraine, including Crimea, which Russia annexed in 2014. Scores of videos appeared on TikTok, Telegram, Twitter, and other social media sites showing Russian military equipment, including tanks, infantry fighting vehicles, artillery, and air defense systems, moving toward or appearing in the vicinity of Ukraines borders. The United States Department of Defenses spokesperson John Kirby told reporters that the Russian buildup was even larger than during the peak of the fighting in 2014. Ukrainian officials estimated that the Russian military buildup would reach a total of 120,000 Russian troops with more than fifty-six battalion tactical groups (BTG). United States defense officials gave a lower estimate that 48 BTGs had moved into the border area and 80,000 Russian troops were in Crimea or elsewhere near Ukraines borders. To put this in perspective, the Russian military has approximately 850,000-900,000 servicemembers in total, and 168 constant readiness BTGs, according to Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu. If these estimates were accurate, the Russian military massed roughly 10-15% of its total manpower and approximately one third of its BTGs near Ukraines borders.

In response to the buildup, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Mark Milley, National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, and President Joe Biden all called their Russian counterparts to discuss the situation. U.S. European Command (EUCOM) raised its alert status to its highest level. The buildup also coincided with an increase in fighting along the line of contact, with at least 36 Ukrainian servicemen killed thus far in 2021. The movement of Russian forces led to intense speculation about Russias intentions, including fears of a large-scale ground invasion. However, U.S. intelligence indicated that a large-scale ground invasion was unlikely because of a lack of prepositioned spare parts, field hospitals, ammunition, and other logistics necessary for such an operation. Likewise, EUCOM commander General Tod Wolters said on April 15 that there was a low to medium risk of a Russian ground invasion of Ukraine in the coming weeks.

On April 22, after the end of a large-scale exercise at the Opuk training area in Crimea, which included an amphibious landing, a helicopter air assault operation with two companies, and a multi-battalion airborne operation with more than two thousand paratroopers and sixty vehicles parachuted from forty Il-76MD transport aircraft, Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu announced that the winter verification tests for the Western and Southern Military Districts had been a success and the troops would return to their permanent bases. However, he indicated that equipment from Central Military Districts 41st Combined Arms Army, which included BM-27 Uragan multiple launch rocket systems and Iskander-M short-range ballistic missile systems and other heavy equipment, would remain at the Pogonovo training area in Voronezh near Ukraines border until the Zapad 2021 strategic exercise in September. Furthermore, Shoigu did not state clearly whether all of the equipment and units deployed near Ukraines borders outside of Crimea would also return to their bases, nor how those units were employed during the snap inspection.

Two weeks after Shoigus announcement, U.S. defense officials said that Russia had removed only a few thousand troops and that there were approximately 80,000 servicemen near Ukraines borders, despite Shoigus order for most of those units to return to their permanent bases by May 1. Thus Russia can still escalate rapidly in Ukraine in the future, though the immediate threat of a serious escalation of fighting in the Donbas appears to have passed with Shoigus announcement.

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Russia's Coercive Diplomacy: Why Did the Kremlin Mass Its Forces Near Ukraine This Spring? - Foreign Policy Research Institute

Wearing traditional embroidered shirts, Pavlo Shykin, 27, and Dana Vitkovska, 26, were all smiles on Tuesday as their nation, Ukraine, celebrated 30 years of independence.

Thousands of Ukrainians flocked to Kreshatyk Street, the main vein of the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, as the country celebrated the landmark date with an impressive parade of soldiers, vehicles, planes and strike drones.

Shykin and Vitkovska are about to change their own independent status by getting married but gave Euronews a sense of how the nation is seen by people born shortly after the independence of 1991.

The soon-to-be-married couple lived through the economic and social turmoil of the 90s when Ukraine was trying to form a new nation out of a former Soviet republic. They were teenagers at the beginning of this millennium, just as Ukraine started to see economic growth, and they were both university students when the 'Revolution of Dignity' ousted former president Viktor Yanukovich in 2013-2014.

There's been a lot of different times. When we were born, they were very hard times for Ukraine. Our parents tell us that it was a very hard period. But the economic situation improved, we had growth, and the situation became much better. I dont remember the bad times, only the good ones, says Shykin, who, as an economist, is very much aware of the peaks and troughs of the nation's fiscal history. But his girlfriend Dana Vitkovksa sees a more psychological phenomenon at work.

People didnt feel like Ukrainians," she tells Euronews.

"They didnt have their own identity, but this situation is changing. You can see that people are becoming aware of the fact, that they are one nation. Maybe the war in the East is the reason that they embraced their identity. I think that it is becoming better every year.

The 2014 revolution that ousted president Yanukovich has many names. In the west, it is commonly known as Maidan. In Ukraine, it is often called the Revolution of Dignity. It is objectively one of the most defining moments of modern Ukrainian history, but also for Shykin, the revolution has a very special place.

I remember the Orange Revolution and the Revolution of Dignity. I was a student and I was on the Maidan and saw the fights against the Berkut (the riot police unit that has since been abolished), and we built barricades. For me, it was a real revolution of dignity. After that, I realised that I was Ukrainian and I wanted to be Ukrainian, says Shykin.

Still, according to the young couple, Ukraine has some way to go in the fight against corruption. But even though the state is struggling to rid itself of such a thing, argues Vitkovska, society is slowly changing.

It is not that easy to change all the people. We have 40 million people, and they are different. Many of them are old and used to live in conditions where you have to bribe someone or have connections, if you want something. Now I think many people change their mindset, but it is a long process, says Vitkovska.

This young couple is in no doubt about the importance of Ukrainian identity, and their need to fight for it, but what is it?

To be Ukrainian is to love our country and wanting it to prosper, says Shykin before Vitkova jumps in:

To love our culture, because I think we have to not let it die. A lot of people forget that our grandmothers used to make a lot by hand, that is a part of our culture. And for example, in Belarus, a lot of the people are speaking Russian instead of Belarusian. It is not for the best. You lose something valuable.

How does she see the future?

In 30 years, we will have children," says Vitkova. "They will be 25 years old, I hope they will learn to be proud of who they are, to live by the law. We will manage to fight corruption, the political situation will change for the better because people who are young now and fighting for Ukraine will be the political elite, says Vitkova.

Exactly 30 years ago on Tuesday, the Ukrainian parliament passed a declaration of independence cementing the fact that the USSR had collapsed. Ukraine was now its own state again, and for the first time in years, the country had to find its own way through the world.

Leonid Kravchuk was elected as the first president of Ukraine and served in a time of harsh economic recession. When the second president, Leonid Kuchma, ascended to power, the country began making up for the lost ground with strong economic growth.

In 2004, Kuchma left office. Ukraine was now left with the choice between electing Viktor Yanukovich or Viktor Yuschenko as president. Yanukovich was in favour of stronger ties with Russia, while Yuschenko had his eyes turned to the West.

Yanukovich won the election by a very tight margin, but alleged fraud and intimidation of voters had the supreme court rule the results null and void following massive protests that were later called the Orange Revolution.

Yuschenko won the election in the second run-off and served until 2010, where Yanukovich made a comeback and was elected president. During his time, he was accused of taking Ukrainian democracy down a more authoritarian road.

It all culminated in 2013 when Yanukovich did not sign the Association Agreement with the European Union and instead tried to snuggle up to the Kremlin. Again, protesters went to the streets and formed an enormous sit-in on Maidan Nezalezhnosti Independence Square.

They were met with police brutality and by the end, around 130 people had died. It would get a lot worse a lot quicker. Yanukovich was forced to resign in February 2014 after three months of protests and in March, Russia annexed the Crimean Peninsula in southern Ukraine.

Every weekday, Uncovering Europe brings you a European story that goes beyond the headlines. Download the Euronews app to get a daily alert for this and other breaking news notifications. It's available on Apple and Android devices.

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Ukrainian independence at 30: Is the building of an identity its biggest achievement? - Euronews