LARGE crowds gathered at St Leonards clock tower in Newton Abbot on Wednesday, August 24, to observe Ukraine Independence Day.

Independence Day of Ukraine, as it is known in the country, serves to commemorate the Declaration of Independence of 1991.

Residents from Newton Abbot showed up en masse in support of the country as well as those Ukrainians who, having fled their homeland, now call the town and Devon as a whole, home.