Ukrainian Institute for the Future -

President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky decided not to conduct a military parade on the Independence Day. Instead 300 million UAH will be spent on rewarding the military. Irakliy Jhanashiya, the expert on national security and defence of the UIF, commented on the decision of the President.

We do not need parades with military equipment – this is a prototype of the Soviet parades, which are now held in North Korea, Iran, the Russian Federation and other former-Soviet countries. We don’t want to be like them. In Europe there is no military equipment on parades, they have only an orchestra. We do not have to show whose weapons are better during the parades but should honor the people who are fighting at the front and risking their lives for the country. The President promised to allocate 300 million UAH to reward the military instead of spending them on the traditional parade. I believe that it would be more reasonable to spend this money on buying good quality bulletproof vests and handing them out to soldiers, even if a small amount of them will be bought.