page_title: March of Defenders
section_title: Events
hierarchical_section_title: March of Defenders / 2019 / Events
caption_attribution_description: Українська: Ветерани війни на сході України з Донецької області
context_page_description: The March of the Defenders also known as the Alternative Parade is a public march and demonstration held on the occasion of the Independence Day of Ukraine. This celebration honors all the veterans and serving personnel of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and other uniformed organizations, especially those who have been killed in action.
context_section_description: At 9:00 am, columns of participants began to form near Shevchenko Park, on Volodymyrska Street. Two hours later,  the march itself began, with the columns moving down to the Khreshchatyk and through Bessarabska Square. At the head of the column were two camouflage vehicles and a police car.
  The column went all the way to the Central Department Store (TsUM) on Maidan Nezalezhnosti where it concluded. While on the Maidan, the participants lined up, sang Shche ne vmerla Ukrayina, and then climbed with the audience to the "Wall of Memory", where a prayer service was held for those killed in the ongoing Russo-Ukrainian War. The march was scheduled to end at one o'clock on Mykhailivska Square. An interfaith prayer service was held in the St. Michael's Golden-Domed Monastery. According to the National Police of Ukraine, there were about 20,000 participants in the event, and a total of 50,000 people gathered on Independence Square. On the Maidan, marchers raised portraits of 96 Ukrainian political prisoners and prisoners of war who remain in Russian prisons.
caption: Donetsk Oblast veterans of the War in Donbass during the procession
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