Ukraine’s defiant independence day mocks Vladimir Putin

Military parades are a complicated affair in Ukraine, long tainted by association with Soviet pomp and oppression. Holding one for independence day on August 24th this year, while Ukrainian troops fight real, bloody battles in the south, east and north, would have been a particularly tricky sell. Instead, President Volodymyr Zelensky’s office served up a twist, presenting an open-air exhibition of destroyed Russian military hardware on Khreschatyk, the wide street that runs through central Kyiv, the capital. Chewed, broken up and spat out by the Ukrainian army, the exhibits mock Vladimir Putin, who reportedly planned to stage his own victory parade there. Macabre and irreverent, the show mirrors life in a nation that is somehow surviving.