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Pro-Russian rebels parade seized Ukrainian troops

Pro-Moscow rebels in eastern Ukraine town of Donetsk paraded captured Ukrainian troops through the streets of their main stronghold.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has called on both sides to engage in order to bring peace to Ukraine as she pledged €500 million to help rebuild the war-shattered eastern regions.

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Ukraine military parades on Independence Day

Armoured vehicles and soldiers have been parading in Kiev today, Ukrainian Independence day.

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said the nation's military was being mobilised for a historic war of independence from Russia.

Soldiers, some due to head directly to the front where government forces are fighting pro-Russian separatists, staged a marchpast on Kiev's Independence Square followed by a parade of armored vehicles armed with anti-tank weapons and trucks towing missile systems.

During the ceremony, Poroshenko declared that Ukraine's war against pro-Russian separatists, who it says are armed by Moscow, would likely enter history as 'the 2014 patriotic war'.

Ukraine declared its independence from a collapsing Soviet Union on 25th August 1991, but many Ukrainians believe Moscow has never truly let it function as a sovereign state, and is now trying to restore its control. Russia denies helping the rebellion, or trying to intervene in Ukraine's internal affairs.

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