Ukraine marks third anniversary of Euromaidan

Government officials, Maidan protest participants, and ordinary citizens held ceremonies in Kyiv on Monday, and placed flowers at a monument to the "Heavenly Hundred" – protesters who were killed in clashes with security forces during the protest. In his speech congratulating Ukrainians on this day, President Petro Poroshenko called on the nation to unite and stand against the Russian "threat," insisting that the country would never revert to its Moscow-dominated past. "The Revolution of Dignity put an end to our Russian-Soviet past and the post-Soviet period," Poroshenko said. "It has separated our Ukrainian and European world from the Russian world." “Ukraine is the most Euro-optimistic country in Europe,” the President noted. Poroshenko reported that he would depart to Brussels on Thursday to attend the Ukraine-EU Summit. The President stressed that Ukraine had fully implemented 144 items of the Visa Liberalization Action Plan and proved to the whole world its capability of implementing the European-oriented reforms of any complexity. A "revolution march" was also organized in the capital by nationalists from 7pm local time. Commemorations are being held in other cities as well.