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© AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky Ukranian President Pyotr Poroshenko
Before the end of this year Ukraine "will spend billions of hryvnas" to upgrade military hardware of the country's armed forces, President Pyotr Poroshenko said at a military parade on the occasion of the 23rd Ukrainian independence anniversary on Sunday.

"Warplanes, helicopter gunships, warships and motor boats will be bought and this is just a moderate start," he said, adding that right from Kreshchatik "the column of troops will be dispatched in the combat action zone" in east Ukraine.

As for the current situation in the country's east, he believes that the crisis in these regions "poses a threat not only to European, but also global stability." "The diplomacy is doing all possible and impossible to attain settlement," he added.

Forty-nine types of military hardware, including artillery guns, multiple launch rocket systems Grad, armoured personnel carriers, air defence systems, ballistic missile system Tochka-U and other military machinery were presented at the military parade on the occasion of the 23rd Ukrainian independence anniversary.