Ukraine marks Independence Day as it remembers the fallen
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00:00 Well, let's cross live now to Kyiv and correspondent Emmanuelle Chaz.
00:04 Emmanuelle, tell us where you are.
00:07 Well, I am here in Kreschatyk, not far from Maidan Nezalezhnosti, which is the Independence
00:16 Square.
00:17 And we are here on Kyiv's Main Street.
00:20 You can see around me the charred Russian tanks, which are exhibited today for Independence
00:26 Day, because that's the day it is here.
00:29 It is not a day for celebration.
00:31 There's a lot of people around me who came here to see those charred tanks, because this
00:37 is a reminder of why the Ukrainian army is fighting and of what they are doing to defend
00:43 the independence of the country.
00:45 But it's still not a day where people will be extremely joyful, because it's also the
00:50 day that marks to the day the 18th month, one year and a half of Russia's attempt to
00:57 fully invade Ukraine.
00:59 So people who are here are looking around at those war tokens, if you will.
01:08 But there has been no big commemoration on Maidan where I am.
01:13 There's been earlier on a ceremony with Volodymyr Zelensky, but it wasn't open to a vast public.
01:20 So it's a day of remembrance of all the soldiers who are dying on the front line, as much as
01:26 it is a day of remembrance of the anniversary of the 32nd anniversary of Ukraine's independence.
01:35 Ukraine marking Independence Day in Kyiv, where you are, but also on the battlefield
01:38 with the claim that special forces took out a Russian air battery, air defense battery
01:44 in Crimea overnight and briefly hoisted the Ukrainian flag on its soil for the first time
01:52 since Vladimir Putin's 2014 annexation.
01:55 We can show images that have been put out by Ukrainian authorities there hoisting that
02:03 flag.
02:06 Yes, this is highly symbolic and of course, welcome by Ukrainians.
02:13 Here an operation that was a commander operation.
02:16 It happened in the early hours of the day, according to Ukraine's special forces.
02:21 So this is an incursion on the northwestern tip of Crimea in a village where there's a
02:28 Russian radar base.
02:29 There's also Russian radio, which might have been damaged during this operation.
02:34 We haven't gotten much more details for security reasons, says the government, which also says
02:41 that all the members of that commando came back alive and well from the mission.
02:46 And according again to Ukrainian sources, there have been, there has been damages on
02:53 Russian positions and also on Russian, there has been human losses on the Russian side.
02:59 Menyel Shaz reporting live from Kyiv.
03:02 Many thanks for that update.
03:04 (audience laughing)