'Donetsk Died:' Rebels Parade Ukrainian POWs on Independence Day

August 24 should be a special day for all of Ukraine. The separatists in east Ukraine, especially in Donetsk, decided to celebrate Independence Day with a parade of Ukrainian POWs and stolen Ukraine military equipment through the city center on Lenin Street.

The majority of people in east Ukraine speak Russian and identify more with Russia. The Kyiv Post reported spectators yelled “Facists!” and “F*cking demons!” at the captured soldiers. Others threw “flour, eggs and bottles at the prisoners.” Another video showed a street cleaning machine behind the soldiers, which is “a clear reference to the march of captive German soldiers in Moscow in 1944, where a street cleaner symbolically washed the road after them.”

“Donetsk died,” a priest said after his pleas not to hold a POW march fell on deaf ears.

Ole Solvang with Human Rights Watch said the POW parade violates the Geneva Convention.

Donetsk did not stop fighting. Residents and journalists tweeted during the day that shells hit hospitals and gunfire filled the air.