text:
a SLOW NEWS Compendium
of the UKRAINIAN REVOLUTION
Putin Goes to War
The New Yorker
Dismembering Ukraine
The Weekly Standard
If Russia Swallows Ukraine,
the European System is Finished
Is Russia Done after Crimea?
What is Russia's
Next Move? [VIDEO]
Ticking Timebomb: Moscow
Moves to Destabilize
Eastern Ukraine
Eastern Ukraine: A New Pawn
in Putin's Dangerous Game
Al Jazeera
Ukraine Crisis in Maps
The New York Times
What Do We Know about
Russia's troop Buildup
on Ukraine's Border?
NATO: Pics Show Russian
Military Buildup [VIDEO]
Is Russia Ready to Move
into Eastern Ukraine?
BBC News
Russia could Invade Ukraine
12 hours after Order, says
NATO Commander
Putin Doesn't Need to Invade
Ukraine to Destabilize It, But
He Just Might Anyway
The New Republic
Russia Plotting for Ukrainian
Influence, Not Invasion,
Analysts Say
The New York Times
Putin Can Take Ukraine Without
an Invasion, and Probably Will
The Daily Beast
Putin Steals the CIA's Playbook
on Anti-Soviet Covert Operations
The Washington Post
Putin's New Kind of War
Putin's Russia as a
State Sponsor of Terrorism
World Affairs Journal
Putin's Terrifying Warmongering
World Affairs Journal
Russia's Economic War
against Ukraine [VIDEO]
As Pressures Mount On Putin,
Analysts Wonder What He
Hopes To Gain
How to Understand
Putin's Ukraine Strategy
American Enterprise Institute
Putin's Chess Moves In
Ukraine: Brilliant Tactics,
But Bad Strategy?
Putin's Plan: Civil War in Ukraine
EuroMaidan PR
What is Motivating Putin?
The Washington Post
For Putin, Ukraine Is
Too Important To 'Lose'
Ukraine is Putin's, not
Russia's, War
The Washington Post
Does Obama really
Understand Putin?
How U.S. Should
Respond to Russia
Global Public Square/CNN
On Ukraine, America
Has Good Options
The Weekly Standard
Can U.S. use Diplomacy
to Deter Russia's Move in
Ukraine? [VIDEO]
PBS Newshour
Key General Splits With
Obama Over Ukraine
The Daily Beast
Obama's Dithering
Ukraine Policy
National Review
U.S. Giving Putin
Green Light in Ukraine?
The West Leaves
Ukraine to Putin
The Wall Street Journal
Is Ukraine about to
Go Nuclear Again?
How to Stop Putin
National Review
How to Defeat Russia
Al Jazeera
Russian-Sponsored Territories
The London Review of Books
Pro-Russian Protestors in
Ukraine Dream of Soviet
Glory Days
The Daily Beast
Workers Fear for the Future
in Ukraine's Industrial East
The Guardian
A Russian Invasion of East
Ukraine Would Make Crimea
Seem Like a Cinch
Russia's Special Ops
Invasion of Ukraine Has Begun
The Daily Beast
U.S. Eyes Russian Spies
Infiltrating Ukraine
The Daily Beast
From Russia, 'Tourists'
Stir the Protests
The New York Times
Ukraine Blames Russia
for Unrest [VIDEO]
Kiev's Old Bosses Are
Sabotaging the New Ukraine
The Daily Beast
The Mafia Ruling Ukraine's Mobs
The Daily Beast
Soccer Hooligans
Prep Ukraine for Putin
The Daily Beast
Pro-Russian Militias
Are Roaming Odessa
The Daily Beast
[The People of Donetsk Declare Independent Republic] [VIDEO]
Ukrainian Protesters Seize
Weapons, Raising The Stakes
In Eastern Ukraine, Normality
Rules Except At Ground Zero
Tense Standoff in Eastern
Ukraine could Shape
Country's Future
The Washington Post
Politicians in Ukraine Maneuver
for a Deal to End Standoff
The Washington Post
Ukraine leader Yatsenyuk
Offers Powers to troubled East
BBC News
Pro-Russia Ukrainians Are
Promised More Power, but
Remain Dubious
The New York Times
The Ukrainian Prime Minister's
Visit, As Seen From Behind
Protesters Declare
Donetsk 'Republic'
BBC News
Russian Separatists in
Donetsk Dig In [VIDEO]
[The People's Rebublic of Donetsk
Gather to Discuss their Plan to
Join Russia] [VIDEO]
In Eastern Ukraine, a One-Building,
Pro-Russia Realm Persists Despite Criticism
The New York Times
Russia's Deep Ties to Donetsk's
Kremlin Collaborators
The Kyiv Post
In Ukraine's East, Russians
Are Blending Right In
The New York Times
In Eastern Ukraine, The Hunt
For A Smoking Gun—And
A Real Russian Holding It
Russia Issues Warning As
Ukraine Forcibly Removes
Luhansk Dispatch: Armed Pro-
Russian Protesters Set For
Standoff With Police
Pro-Russian Crowds
Dwindle in Luhansk [VIDEO]
[Pro-Russia and Pro-Ukraine in Luhansk] [VIDEO]
Ukraine Gunmen Seize
Buildings in Sloviansk
BBC News
Inside a Russian-Occupied
Police Station in Ukraine
The Daily Beast
[Pro-Russia Forces Take Over
Police Headquarters in
Slovyansk] [VIDEO]
Pro-Russian Gunmen
Seize Building [VIDEO]
[Pro-Russia Protesters Storm
a Police Station in Horlivka]
Armed Pro-Russians
Storm Police Station [VIDEO]
Ukraine Launches 'Anti-Terrorist'
Campaign against Pro-Russian
The Washington Post
Russia: Ukraine heading
for Civil War [VIDEO]
U.N. Security Council Meets
as Ukraine 'Teeters on the Brink'
Ukraine Asks U.N. for
Peacekeeping troops as
Militants Defy Deadline
The New York Times
Ukraine: Need Help from
World Community [VIDEO]
No Sign of Crackdown as
Ukraine Deadline Passes
Ukraine Falters in Drive
to Curb Unrest in East
The New York Times
Ukraine Powerless to Act
as East Slips Under
Russian Control
Fear, Anger In Kyiv Over
Inaction In Eastern Ukraine
Tensions Running High
in Ukraine [VIDEO]
Finding Reasons for Optimism
in Ukraine's Situation
Kyiv Post
Here's What the CIA Director
Was Really Doing in Kiev
The Daily Beast
CIA Director's trip to Kiev
Was a Warning to Putin
The Daily Beast
Ukraine Says It Has Begun
Military Operation in East
The New York Times
Ukraine says it is Launching
Counteroffensive; troops said
to Surround Slovyansk
The Washington Post
Ukraine Makes Good on
Threats to Pounce on
Russian Protesters
Foreign Policy
Ukraine: We Control
Kramatorsk Airfield [VIDEO]
Ukrainian Forces Kill 3
Pro-Russian Demonstrators
The New York Times
Ukraine Military Push Appears
to Lose Momentum in the East
[The Ukrainian Military Launch
an Anti-Terrorist Operation
—Or Not] [VIDEO]
Ukraine Push Against
Rebels Grinds to Halt
The New York Times
Ukrainian Troops Surrender to Unarmed Pro-Russian Protesters
The Daily Beast
Ukrainian troops Allegedly
Desert to Join Pro-Russian
Forces in Slavyansk
[The Ukrainian Military Moves
into Sloviansk—Or Not] [VIDEO]
The Ukrainian Army Is
Crumbling Before Putin
The Daily Beast
Ukraine's Attempt To Retake
The East Fails Miserably
Ukraine Is Not Ready for the Consequences of Taking
Russia's Military Bait
Ukrainian troops Face
Militants in East [VIDEO]
Ukrainian City Demands
Independence [VIDEO]
Military Thwarted by
Pro-Russian Groups [VIDEO]
Russia Has Basically Invaded
Ukraine Again. Here's Why
Kiev Isn't Shooting Back
The New Republic
Putin Asserts Right to Use
Force in Eastern Ukraine
The New York Times
Putin: I Would Be Justified
Using Force in Ukraine
Putin's Strategy:
Good Cop, Bad Cop
The Many Paradoxes
of the Ukraine Crisis
The Huffington Post
What is the End Game
for Vladimir Putin? [VIDEO]
A Quick End Won't Serve
Vladimir Putin's Purposes
in Ukraine
The Los Angeles Times
In Ukraine, Russia Plays
a Weighted Word Game
The New York Times
What is Russia's Vision
of a Federal Ukraine?
BBC News
Would Referendum Vote End
Ukraine Crisis? [VIDEO]
While Russians Riot in Ukraine,
the Kremlin Talks Diplomacy
The Daily Beast
Ukraine Crisis Talks: Diplomats
Urge End to Violence,
Security for All
Ukraine Foreign Minister
Speaks of Mistrust—and a Truce
The Daily Beast
U.S. and Russia Agree on Pact
to Defuse Ukraine Crisis
The New York Times
Out Of A Tough Day Of
Diplomacy, A Surprising
Deal On Ukraine
Mediator Heads to East
Ukraine, Seeking Surrenders
Putin's Men in Ukraine:
We're Not Giving In
The Daily Beast
Separatist Leader Vows to
Ignore Deal Reached on Ukraine
The New York Times
East Ukraine's Rebels
Dig In For The Long Haul
Pro-Russia Separatists in Ukraine
Dig in for Another Day Despite International Deal
Ukraine's Billionaire
Bounty-Hunting Club
The Daily Beast
Ukraine PM Skeptical of
Russian Deal [VIDEO]
Away From Show of Diplomacy
in Geneva, Putin Puts On a
Show of His Own
The New York Times
The Putin Show
Goes Global [PODCAST]
Kiev Reaches Out to
Eastern Rebels
Protesters in Ukraine's Restive
East Feel Far from Kiev, Close
to Russia
The Wall Street Journal
Caught in a Cold Stand-Off:
Voices from Eastern Ukraine
BBC News
Opposing Protests Pull Eastern Ukraine In Two Directions
Donetsk Greets the
Ukraine Crisis With a Shrug
Ukrainian, Russian Church
Leaders trade Accusations
On Easter
[Easter Traditions Admidst
the Crisis] [VIDEO]
Mysterious Fatal Shooting in
Eastern Ukraine Adds to Tension
Deadly Shootout in Ukraine
Raises Fears of Russian Invasion
The Daily Beast
Russia Blames Kiev for New
Violence in Eastern Ukraine
The Washington Post
At Funeral, Expressions of Grief and Anger Toward Kiev Officials
The New York Times
'In Cold Blood' in Ukraine
The Daily Beast
Eastern Ukraine Councilman Mourned as a Hero Who Met
a Gruesome End
The Los Angeles Times
'Murdered' Ukraine Politician
Faced Hostile Mob [...]
In Eastern Ukraine, Terror
from Pro-Kremlin Outsiders
World Affairs Journal
Security Situation In Eastern Ukraine Is Unpredictable
Heated Words On Air Often
Don't Match Events On
Ground In Ukraine
The Billionaire Parachuted in
to Run Ukraine's Most
Troubled Region
The Guardian
Meet the Pro-Russian
Separatists of Eastern Ukraine
Russia's Partisans Imposing
Their Rule in East Ukraine
The Daily Beast
Ukraine Separatists Hunker
Down and Hope Putin Will
Come to their Aid
The Los Angeles Times
Behind the Masks in Ukraine,
Many Faces of Rebellion
The New York Times
[Inside the Pro-Russian
Headquarters] [VIDEO]
[Interview with Sloviansk
"People's Mayor",
V. Ponomarev] [VIDEO]
Pro-Russian Separatists Block
Monitors from Buildings in East Ukraine, Diplomats Say
The Washington Post
Putin's Men in Ukraine
Seize U.S. Journalist
The Daily Beast
On the Front Lines in
Ukraine's Info War
The Daily Beast
What Simon Ostrovsky's
Detention Means for Ukraine's Information Wars
'I Had It Pretty Easy, Because
I Was Let Go': Simon Ostrovsky
On His Detention in Sloviansk
The Kidnapping Of Journalists
Is The Latest Step In Ukraine Propaganda Wars
Ukrainian Journalists Face
Threats as Separatists Make Demands of Media
The Guardian
In Ukraine, Journalists in Peril
The National Review
Biden Offers Strong Support
to Ukraine and Issues a Sharp
Rebuke to Russia
The New York Times
U.S. Will Stand by Ukraine in
Face of Russian Aggression,
Biden says
The Los Angeles Times
What Obama Should Tell Americans About Ukraine
How Ukraine Crisis
Could Pull U.S. to War
The Twin Dangers of
the Ukraine Crisis
Clark-Karber Interim Report
Ukraine Calls for Renewal
of Anti-Terror Measures
5 Die as Government Forces
Clash with Pro-Russians
Ukraine's Military Drive in East Enters Neutral Gear, as Pact
on Crisis Is Tested
The New York Times
Ukraine Helicopter Hit
by Grenade Taking Off
The Telegraph
Tense Moments at Ukrainian Checkpoint [VIDEO]
Russia Complains of Large Ukrainian Troop Buildup in East
Defying Moscow, Ukraine
Threatens to Blockade
Pro-Russian Militants
The New York Times
Russia Orders Exercises After Ukraine Moves on Separatists
Russia to Start Drills, Warning Ukraine Over Mobilization
The New York Times
Russia Warns Ukraine of
Potential Military Response
The New York Times
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov Warns Moscow "Will Respond" If Interests Attacked
The Independent
OSCE Slams Putin For
The 'Height Of Hypocrisy'
Russian Jets Fly into
Ukranian Airspace
The Telegraph
Could Russia Occupy Ukraine?
World Affairs Journal
Does Russia Have The
Military To Take Ukraine?
Russia Displays a New Military Prowess in Ukraine's East
The New York Times
'Russia has Organized
the Events in Ukraine'
NATO: Russia Uses Shadow Soldiers In Eastern Ukraine
Kerry: U.S. Taped Moscow's
Calls to Its Ukraine Spies
The Daily Beast
Ukraine: Photos Show
Undercover Russian troops
Scrutiny Over Photos Said to
Tie Russia Units to Ukraine
The New York Times
Is This Man in Russian
Special Forces? [VIDEO]
Meeting the Little Green Men
Meet Igor Strelkov, The Face
Of The Insurgency In
Eastern Ukraine
The Huffington Post
Shadowy Commander Is
Face of Insurgency in Ukraine
The New York Times
Pro-Russian Commander in
Eastern Ukraine Sheds Light
on Origin of Militants
The Wall Street Journal
As Russian Forces Escalate, Ukraine's Influence Waning
The Washington Post
Ukraine Conflict Becomes
Hostage Crisis as Separatists
Take Prisoners
The Abducted And
The Missing In Eastern Ukraine
OSCE Observers Held Captive
Amid Simmering Tensions
OSCE Observers Taken Prisoner
by Pro-Russian Forces
in Ukraine
The Daily Beast
Observers Detained in
Eastern Ukraine [VIDEO]
Kidnapped Observers Paraded
by Pro-Russian Gunmen
in Slavyansk
The Guardian
Ukraine: 'Observers To Be
Used As Human Shield'
Sky News
Moscow 'To Help Free
European Observers'
One European Observer Freed, Others Still Held in Ukraine
Putin Rival Takes
Message to East Ukraine
The New York Times
Russia's Gazprom Issues May 7 Ultimatum over Gas Supplies
The Telegraph
G7 Promises to 'Move Swiftly'
with Sanctions Against Russia
U.S. Expands Sanctions, Adding Holdings of Russians in Putin's Financial Circle
The New York Times
US Announces Sanctions on
Putin's Inner Circle over Ukraine
The Guardian
Washington Levels New
Sanctions At Russia, Pulls
Some Punches
Russian Billionaires Avoid
New Sanctions [VIDEO]
On The Sanctions List: Russia's 'Darth Vader,' Among Others
From 'Darth Vader' To 'The
Wolf': A Who's Who Of Putin's Sanctioned 'Insiders'
Russia Vows 'Painful' Response
to New U.S. Sanctions
over Ukraine
Heated Words, And Mild Relief,
In Russia's Response To New Sanctions
How Much Will New U.S.
Sanctions Affect Russia?
So Far, U.S. Sanctions Over Ukraine May Be Inflicting Only Limited Pain on Russia
The New York Times
'Slap On The Wrist':
Congressional Critics Slam
'Tepid' Russia Sanctions
U.S. Senators Push For
Sanctions On Russia's Gazprom
Putin's Endgame, and Why
Obama Has it Right on Ukraine
The Kyiv Post
EU Names 15 Individuals
Targeted by Latest Sanctions
Marchers And Mayhem In
Eastern Ukraine City
Roiled By Protests
Donetsk Seized by
Violence, Protesters [VIDEO]
Disarray in Eastern Ukraine
as Protest is Attacked,
Mayor is Shot
The Washington Post
One City Falls to Pro-Russian Militants; in Another,
the Mayor Is Shot
The New York Times
Wounded Mayor Is Both
Colorful and Powerful,
Loved and Loathed
The New York Times
Occupations Run with
Military Precision [VIDEO]
Pro-Russian Says
Operation Will Spread
Pro-Russia Activists
Seize Luhansk HQ
Russia Offers Proposal
to Resolve Ukraine Crisis
The Guardian
Is Ukraine on a Long
Road to Rupture?
Council on Foreign Relations
'We May Already Be Past
The Point Of No Return'
Living on the Edge in
Eastern Ukraine [VIDEO]
Ukraine Reinforcing Border Positions[VIDEO]
Who Will Blink First,
Vladimir Putin or the West?
Is War Inevitable?
Shoigu Says Russia
Won't Invade Ukraine
Ukraine: The Phony War?
The New York Review of Books
Reality Check in Ukraine
The Daily Beast
Ukraine: Hate in Progress
The New York Review of Books
Bodies Surface Along
River in Ukraine [VIDEO]
Russia's Gunmen in East
Ukraine Double Down on Mayhem
The Daily Beast
Defiant Pro-Russian Activists
Seize More Buildings
Ukraine's Restive East Slipping from Government's Grasp
Ukrainian President Says
Security Forces 'Helpless'
to Stop Separatists' Spread
The Washington Post
Ukraine's Acting President:
We've Lost Control Of East
Ukraine Says That
Militants Won the East
The New York Times
Pro-Russian Activists Clash
with Police in Donetsk
[May Day Protest in Donestsk][VIDEO]
Police and Protesters
Clash on May Day [VIDEO]
Protesters Overrun
Ukrainian Riot Police [VIDEO]
Ukrainian Riot Police Humiliated
in Clash with Separatists; Putin Demands Kiev Pull Troops
The Washington Post
Putin Demands Ukraine Pull
Forces From Southeast
The New York Times
Pro-Russian Separatists in
Eastern Ukraine were
'Nobodies'—Until Now
The Washington Post
Small Numbers, Global Impact
For Separatists, Ballots Are
On Their Way—But Plans
Are Still Pending
European Security Official
Decries Attacks on Journalists
in Ukraine
The Los Angeles Times
Fear Reigns Along
Ukrainian Roads [VIDEO]
Angry Residents Impede
Ukrainian Forces [VIDEO]
Eastern Ukraine Explodes,
Russian Invasion Grows
More Likely
The Daily Beast
Kiev Resumes Military
Operation in East
Ukrainians Strike Rebel-Held
City as Fighting Spreads
The New York Times
Ukraine Military: 2 Die as
Copters Downed in Operation Against Slavyansk Militias
Deaths And Downed
Helicopters In Eastern
Ukraine Offensive
Chaos in Southern Ukraine:
Deadly Fire, Choppers Down
and Street Fighting
Chaos Grips Odessa,
Ukraine's Third-Largest City
The Washington Post
Carnage in Ukraine: Dozens
of Pro-Russia Activists Die
in Odessa
The Daily Beast
Fire Kills at Least 31 in Odessa [VIDEO]
Police say 42 Killed
in Odessa in Worst
Violence of Ukraine Crisis
The Los Angeles Times
Ukrainian Soccer Celebrations Ended in Odessa Deaths
The New York Times
Ukraine Says Odessa Unrest Planned and Financed
from Abroad
40 Die in Building Fire
in Odessa [VIDEO]
What Really Happened in
Odessa: A Step-By-Step Reconstruction of a Tragedy
that Killed 46 People
Kyiv Post
Deadly Fire in Odessa
May Have Been Accident
The Wall Street Journal
Two Odessa Fire Survivors,
Both in the Anti-Government
Camp, Tell their Stories
Kyiv Post
Ukraine Releases Protesters;
PM Visits Odessa
Ukraine's Reins Weaken
as Chaos Spreads
The New York Times
Russia Sympathisers Vent Anger
at Ukraine Odessa Deaths
Pro-Russia Activists Attack
Police Station in Odessa [...]
The Washington Post
Activists Storm Police
Headquarters [VIDEO]
Protestors Storm Police Headquarters [VIDEO]
Odessa Mob Rule: Who Gave Police Order to Release
Detainees, and Why?
Kyiv Post
Pro-Russian Groups Go Online
with Death Threats Against
Odessa Residents
Kyiv Post
Ukraine Activists Flee Death Threats And Kidnappings
Ukraine To Expel Russian
Diplomat Reportedly Caught
Taking Classified Info
Putin says Geneva Agreement
No Longer Viable after
Ukrainian Military Action
The Guardian
Outrage Out Of Moscow As
News Of Ukrainian Offensive Spreads
Ukraine Presses Pro-Russia Militants After Fighting Spreads
to a Port City
The New York Times
Amid Continued Defiance, Ukrainian Official Vows:
'We are Not Stopping'
Ukrainian Forces Tighten Grip
on Rebels in Embattled
Kramatorsk, Sloviansk
Kyiv Post
Kramatorsk Assault Aftermath [VIDEO]
[In Krasnoarmeysk] [VIDEO]
Fragile Truce in Eastern
City of Luhansk [VIDEO]
Heavy Clashes Reported as Ukrainian Forces Tackle Pro-Russian Separatists
Ukraine Helicopter Downed
as Fighting Resumes in
Troubled East
The Washington Post
Bloodshed Continues
in Slavyansk [VIDEO]
The Human Cost of Eastern Ukraine's Crisis [VIDEO]
"I Should Kill You Right Here"
Ukraine: Captives Describe
Brutal Beatings
Human Rights Watch
Ukraine: Abducted Journalists
and Officials Must Be Released
Amnesty International
Pro-Russian Militants Take
Back Territory [VIDEO]
Cities in Ukraine Changing
Hands Often [VIDEO]
Putin the Predictable
What is Putin's
Interest in Ukraine? [VIDEO]
What Is Putin's 'New Russia'?
The New York Times
'Novorossiya,' the Latest
Historical Concept to Worry
about in Ukraine
The Washington Post
Why Putin's Ukrainian
"New Russia" Could Be
an Ungovernable Mess
'New Russia' on
the Rise in Odessa
The Daily Beast
Is Putin's Next Move to
Take Over Odessa?
The Daily Beast
What Vladimir Putin Chooses
Not to Know About Russian
The Los Angeles Times
The Unhappy Truth
About Ukraine
The Daily Beast
Ukraine's Vote at Risk as
Violence Spreads in East
Putin's Warlords vs.
Ukraine's Presidential Ballot
World Affairs Journal
Russia Questions Ukraine
Holding an Election While
its Troops are Deployed
As Ukrainian Election Looms, Western Powers and Russia Campaign for Influence
The New York Times
Putin Is Undermining Ukraine's Democracy—And Obama
Is Letting Him
[Anger Over Odessa
Reaches Donetsk] [VIDEO]
[Pro-Russian Rebels Surround Military Academy] [VIDEO]
Former U.S. Ambassador
to Moscow Warns of War
in Ukraine
Ukraine May Be On
Brink of War [VIDEO]
Kremlin Says it is Weighing Response to 'Thousands' of
Pleas for Help from Ukraine
The Washington Post
Vladimir Putin Now Has
a Pretext to Invade
The Telegraph
Is Putin Going All
the Way in Ukraine?
Al Jazeera
Putin Announces Pullback
from Ukraine Border
The New York Times
Putin Calls on Ukraine Rebels
to Put off Secession Vote
Putin Wants Delay in
Referendum in Ukraine's
Donetsk Region
Russia's Putin 'Backs
25 May Election'
Putin's Gambit
The Economist
Putin Keeps Russians, West Guessing with Ukraine Shift
Putin's Ukrainian U-Turn
The Economist
A Putin Climb-Down
on Ukraine?
The Daily Beast
Did Putin Just Blink?
Has Putin Blinked?
The Nation
Kinder Words From Putin,
But They Come With A Cost
Pro-Russian Separatists In East Ukraine Left Stumped By
Putin's Surprise Comments
Ignoring Putin, Ukraine
Insurgents to Hold Vote
The New York Times
Pro-Russian Separatists will Proceed with Vote Despite
Putin's Plea
The Washington Post
Pro-Russian Separatists Defy
Putin Call to Delay Referendum
in Ukraine
Pro-Russian Militants Plan
to Defy Putin [VIDEO]
Separatists Defy Kiev and
Putin on Referendum
The New York Times
Spurning Putin's Calls For
Delay, Ukrainian Separatists
Forge Ahead
Pro-Russia Rebel
Vote to Go Ahead
Ukraine Separatists
Say No to Putin
The Daily Beast
Meet the 'Nobodies'
Who Said No to Putin
The Washington Post
Explainer: The Separatist Referendums In Eastern Ukraine
New Poll Shows Eastern
Ukraine's Separatists are Wrong
The Washington Post
In Ukraine, Two Men Claim
To Be The Leader Of Donetsk
Donetsk People's Republic Separatists Mark Victory Day Weekend with New Round of Killings, Abductions
Kyiv Post
In Eastern Ukraine, Lines
Between Thugs And
Freedom Fighters Blur
Ukraine vs Russia: A
Mafia State's Cover-Up?
Al Jazeera
Ukraine: Law Enforcement
Must be Decisive [VIDEO]
In Ukrainian City Under
Blockade, Citizens Go to
Ground, and Below
The New York Times
Kiev Is Blowing Its Chance
to Take Back East Ukraine
The Daily Beast
Ukraine Alleges Russia
Intercept Found [VIDEO]
Dread Fills Odessa, Ukraine,
on Eve of Victory Day
The Washington Post
In Odessa, Home-Grown Combatants Keep Pro-Russia Forces in Check
The New York Times
Odessans Turn their
Backs on National Politics
Kyiv Post
Ukraine Calls for Spectator
Ban at Football Matches
On Victory Day, Fanfare In Crimea And Turmoil In Eastern Ukraine
Putin Arrives in Crimea for
Victory Day Events as Deadly Ukraine Clashes Erupt
From Crimea, Putin
Trumpets Mother Russia
The New York Times
Putin, Marking Crimea
Annexation, Lays Claim
to Historic Mantle
The Washington Post
[Putin Visits Crimea to
Celebrate Victory Day] [VIDEO]
Putin Is Trying to Take Over Russia's Memories of WWII
The New Republic
Putin Is Using WWII for
Propaganda Because It's the
Best Memory That Russia Has
The New Republic
Russia Said it Moved its Troops Away From Ukraine. Satellite Images Seem to Say Otherwise
The Washington Post
This Map Shows How Russia's Military Relies on Ukraine
The Washington Post
Ukraine's Arms Industry Is Both Prize and Problem for Putin
After Carving Up Ukraine,
Where Will Putin Turn Next?
The Washington Post
[Violent Clashes in Mariupol
on Victory Day] [VIDEO]
Chaos and Suspicion in a
Ukrainian City Spinning
Out of Control
'Battle for Ukraine' in Mariupol Leaves Scars and
Polarised Views
Deadly Clashes in Mariupol
Raise Tensions on Eve of
Secession Referendum
in Eastern Ukraine
Kyiv Post
In Eastern Ukrainian City of Mariupol, Law and Order
Crumble on Eve of
Secession Vote
The Washington Post
On Eve Of Referendum, Many
Fear For Ukrainian Economy
Amid Much Uncertainty,
Separatists Prepare for
Voting in Eastern Ukraine
The New York Times
Putin's People Stage
Their Bogus Vote
The Daily Beast
Seperatists Hold Referendum
On East Ukraine Independence
East Ukraine Goes to the Polls for Independence Referendum
The Guardian
Russia-Ukraine Referendum [VIDEO]
Ukraine's Rebels Say they
are Seeking a Mandate, not Independence, in Referendum
The Washington Post
Rebels Talk of Splitting Ukraine
as East Votes on Self-Rule
The New York Times
Many in Eastern Ukraine
Aren't Sold on Referendum
USA Today
Polling Stations Open for
'Illegal' Secession Referendum
in Eastern Ukraine
Kyiv Post
Eastern Ukraine Muddles
Through Voting On
In Ukraine's Separatist Referendums, Only The
Voting Is Plain To See
Some Ukraine Voters
Seen Voting Twice [VIDEO]
Polls Close in Eastern Ukraine
Amid Allegations of Fraud and Double-Voting
Controversial Vote in
Eastern Ukraine [VIDEO]
Chaotic Referendum in
Eastern Ukraine [VIDEO]
Ukraine Vote on
Separation Held in Chaos
The New York Times
Alternate Realities
The Economist
How Ukraine's Referendums Broke The Rules
Why One Donetsk Resident
Stayed Home On
Referendum Day
[Detained in Donetsk on Referendum Day] [VIDEO]
Ukraine's Donetsk Region
Asking to Join Russia,
Separatist Leader Says
East Ukraine Separatists
Seek Union with Russia
Russia Keeps Its Distance
After Ukraine Secession Referendums
The New York Times
What is Putin's Next Move?
What to Do When Russia
Invades Your Country
The Daily Beast
Russia No Longer Needs to
Invade Ukraine, Analysts Say
USA Today
U.S. Won't Recognize Eastern Ukraine Vote On Independence
Ukraine Favors Europe over
Russia, New CNN Poll Finds
In Two Eastern Ukraine
Provinces, Bold Steps
Toward Independence
In One Eastern City,
Ukrainians Find Battle Hits
Too Close to Home
The New York Times
After Referendum In Eastern Ukraine, Different Visions
Looking for Ukraine
The New York Review of Books
As Ukrainian Separatists Claim Victory in Self-Rule Vote, Fears
of All-Out Civil War Mount
The Washington Post
Germany Renews Diplomatic
Effort to Ease Ukraine Crisis
The New York Times
Separatists Ambush Ukrainian Troops; German Foreign
Minister Seeks Talks in Kiev
The Washington Post
Ukraine Holds Talks to End
Crisis, Rebels not Invited
Talks on Ukraine Crisis Open
in Kiev Without Representation
for Separatists
The New York Times
At Center of Ukraine Talks,
Degrees of Decentralizing
The New York Times
In Ukraine Talks, Finger-
Pointing and Little Sign
of Progress
The Washington Post
Ukraine Tense as
Peace Talks Falter
USA Today
Ukraine's Interim Leaders
Struggle to Keep Country from Splitting Apart Ahead of Vote
The Washington Post
Ukraine President Will Not
Be Fully Legitimate:
Russian Official
Volunteer Donbass Battalion
Takes Up Arms to Defend
Ukraine, Defeat Separatists
Kyiv Post
Ukraine Civil War Fears
Mount as Volunteer Units
Take Up Arms
The New York Times
Into Battle
The Economist
The Unraveling of Ukraine
U.N. Monitors Warn on Human Rights in East Ukraine, Crimea
Don't Forget Captives
Still Held in Ukraine
Human Rights Watch
Ill-Treatment of Captives
Amidst Civil Unrest
Amnesty International
In Eastern Ukraine,
Torture Is New Weapon
Three Weeks
A Hostage In Slovyansk
Fight Against Ukraine Rebels Threatens More Unrest
Enter the Oligarchs
2 Ukraine Oligarchs Speak Up
for Unity, Against Pro-Russia Faction
The Los Angeles Times
Fortune Threatened, Ukraine's Richest Man Joins the Fray
Workers Take to Streets to
Calm Tense Ukrainian City
The New York Times
Steelworkers Help Keep
Uneasy Calm in
Eastern Ukraine
The Washington Post
After Eastern Ukrainian Steel Magnate Flexes Muscle,
Barricades Fall
Pro-Russian Insurgents
Retreat in Ukraine's East
USA Today
Who's in Charge Here? In
One Eastern Ukrainian City,
Answer Isn't Clear
Gray Zone: Mariupol Sinks
Into Power Vacuum
Failing Ukraine State
Plays in to Russia's Hands
Ukraine Approaching Point
of No Return, Says UN Chief
Luhansk Separatists Easily Take Over Police Headquarters […]
Kyiv Post
Ukraine Forces Fight Rebels
as Separatists Plan Vote
Ukrainian Officials Hold Unity
Talks as Tension Remains High
The Washington Post
Talks in East Aim to
Ease Tensions in Ukraine
The New York Times
Something Has to Give
The Economist
Ukraine's Faithful Pray for Peace [VIDEO]
Ukraine's Vigilante
The Daily Beast
The Right Goal in Ukraine
Is Ukraine Ready to Vote?
The Washington Post
Keeping Watch On Ukraine
As It Prepares To Elect
A President
Ukraine Ballots Can They
Get to Voters? [VIDEO]
Safety Of Ukraine's Presidential Election In Doubt In The East
Death Threats Hang over Presidential Vote in
Ukraine's East [...]
US News and World Report
Kremlin Announces Ukraine Pullback, but NATO
Doesn't See It
The New York Times
Russian Troops Still at
Ukrainian Border Despite Withdrawal Pledge, NATO says >
Why Putin Really
Will Pull Back
The Daily Beast Times
How Secret Chechen Fighters
in Ukraine Could Help Russia
Kadyrov Denies Chechen
Military Involvement
in Ukraine Fighting
After Neutrality Proves
Untenable, a Ukraine
Oligarch Makes His Move
The New York Times
Ukraine's Richest Man Pushes
Back Against Pro-Moscow Separatists
Rinat Akhmetov's Choice
The Economist
Ukraine's Military and Pro-
Russian Separatists Face Shortcomings in their
Fight in Restive East
The Washington Post
Calm Streets Mask Deep
Divisions in Donetsk
The New York Times
Ukraine's Stalled Rebellion
The New York Review of Books
Solidarity Eludes Ukraine Separatist Groups as
Presidential Election Nears
The New York Times
Inside the 11-Story Building
That's Calling Itself the
People's Republic of Donetsk
The New Republic
Putin Stirred Up Donetsk, Now
He's Leaving Its People High
and Dry
The New Republic
In Ukraine, Chaos Meets Self-Declared Independence
The Chaos Engulfing
Eastern Ukraine
The New Yorker
Ukraine Minorities Worry as
Russia Claims Troop Pullout
USA Today
Donetsk Sees Deadliest
Attack on Troops
Deadliest Day for Ukraine
Troops: 16 Slain in Raid
The Washington Post
16 Killed in Attack on
Soldiers in Donetsk
Kiev Pins Hopes on Oligarch
in Battle Against Eastern Separatists
[Meeting the Donbass
Battalion] [VIDEO]
Ukraine Faces Struggle to
Gain Control of Militias,
Including Those on Its Side
The New York Times
[Simon Ostrovsky Returns To Eastern Ukraine] [VIDEO]
Conflict Fatigue Deepens
in East Ukraine, Just Days
Before Vote
The New York Times
Armed Clashes in East as
Ukraine Counts Down
to Election
Explosions are Precursor
to Ukraine Vote [VIDEO]
Will Violence Disrupt Ukraine Elections? [VIDEO]
Violence and Doubts About Credibility as a Troubled
Ukraine Election Nears
The New York Times
Missing The Vote: Fear Trumps Election Hopes In Donetsk
Will Ukraine Polls Bring
Tensions to a Head in the East?
Ukraine's Presidential Election
Is The Least Of Its Worries
Focus on Russia as Ukraine's Presidential Election Nears
The Washington Post
Putin Gives Mixed Message
on Ukraine as Key Vote
Approaches Amid Clashes
Putin Sends Mixed Signals
On His Attitude To Ukrainian Election
Putin Indicates He'll Respect
Result of Ukrainian Election
The New York Times
Putin Vows to
'Respect' Ukraine Vote
USA Today
Ukraine Vote on Sunday Could
Be Major Step Toward Ending
the Crisis
The Nation
Madeleine Albright: A Free,
Fair Election Possible
In Ukraine
Ukraine: The Edge
of Democracy
The New York Review of Books
The Pushback in Ukraine
The New York Times
Taking The Temperature
Ahead Of Ukraine's Election [VIDEO]
5 Things to Know About
the Ukrainian Election
The Wall Street Journal
Poroshenko Goes For
First-Round Win On May 25
Kyiv Post
Will Poroshenko Win?
The Economist
Enter the Chocolate King
Ukraine's Chocolate King
to the Rescue
Foreign Policy
Ukraine's 'Chocolate
King' Aims for Top Job
The New York Times
The Chocolate King Who
Would Be President
Ukraine's Chocolate Billionaire Tipped for President
Chocolate Tycoon Heads for Landslide Victory in Ukraine Presidential Election
The Guardian
Petro Poroshenko: Ukraine to Reform Governance System
Using Polish Model
Kyiv Post
With Poroshenko on the
Ukraine Campaign Trail
The Daily Beast
Eight Things You Didn't Know
About The Ukrainian Election
Ukraine's Chocolate King Wins
The Daily Beast
'Chocolate King' Wins In
Ukraine, Presidential Exit
Polls Show
Candy Tycoon Elected
Ukraine President
In Ukrainian Election,
Chocolate Tycoon
Poroshenko Claims Victory
The Washington Post
Pro-European Billionaire
Claims Victory in Ukraine Presidential Vote
The New York Times
Billionaire Poroshenko
Declares Victory in Ukraine
Poroshenko Declares Victory
In Ukraine Vote; Runoff
Likely Averted
Poroshenko Wins in Landslide, Vows to 'Bring Peace'
to Ukraine
Kyiv Post
Ukrainian President-Elect Petro Poroshenko Promises Reform
as More Fighting Breaks Out
The New Republic
Kyiv Elects a Mayor for
the First Time Since 2008
Kyiv Post
Fears Of 'Chaos' Bring
People To The Polls
In East, Separatists
and Fear Stop Voters
The New York Times
Separatists Shut Down Polling Places In East Ukraine Cities
Bullets, Not Ballots in Donetsk [VIDEO]
Ukraine Votes for
New President [VIDEO]
Ukraine Elects A
New President [VIDEO]
Donbas Residents Don't Think Poroshenko's Election Will
End Crisis
Kyiv Post
Displaced From Crimea,
Voting On The Mainland
Election of President Seen
as a Beginning to Repairing
The New York Times
Winning at Revolutions
Kyiv Post
Did Peace Just
Break Out in Ukraine?
Petro Poroshenko Vows
to Restore Peace
The Economist
Free Elections Good for
Ukraine, but Could be
Bad for Putin
Ukraine's Next President Vows
to Restore Order and Mend
Russia Ties
The New York Times
Russia Watcher Lucas Says
'Tide Has Turned A Bit'
For Ukraine
In Russia, Tune Changes
About Leader in Ukraine
The New York Times
Russia 'Open to Dialogue'
with New Leader
EU: Proposed Solution
to Ukraine Gas Dispute
USA Today
From Kiev, An Olive Branch
For Russia—And A Saber
For Separatists
Ukraine Airport Battle Erupts;
New Leader Seeks Talks
USA Today
In Ukraine, Fighting at Airport Continues as President-Elect
Vows to Seek Unity
The Washington Post
Ukraine Forces Appear to Oust Rebels From Airport in East
The New York Times
Battles Rage at
Donetsk Airport [VIDEO]
Fierce Fighting Closes Donetsk Airport, Claims Dozens of Lives
Dozens of Separatists Killed
in Ukraine Army Attack
The New York Times
More than 50 Rebels Killed
as New Ukraine Leader
Unleashes Assault
Battle For Donetsk's Airport
Claims Many Lives
The Battle for Donetsk
International Airport[VIDEO]
'I Think Ukraine Will
Be Destroyed' [VIDEO]
War and Murder
in Eastern Ukraine
The Daily Beast
East Ukraine City Largely
Calm after Battle, Rebels
Seek Russian Help
Ukraine: Progress
Without Peace
The New York Review of Books
Insurgents In Ukraine Shoot
Down Helicopter,
Killing General
Ukraine General, 11 Troops
Killed in Downed Chopper
USA Today
Pro-Russia Rebels Shoot Down Ukrainian Helicopter, Killing 12
The Los Angeles Times
Ukrainian Military Helicopter
Shot Down; 14 Dead,
President Says
Ukraine Separatists Down
Army Helicopter, 14 Killed
Is Russia Orchestrating
East Ukraine Violence?
Is Putin Trying To Regain
Control In Eastern Ukraine?
In Moscow's Shadows
Putin's Plan To Keep
Control Of Ukraine
Russians Invade Donetsk
Kyiv Post
Russians Revealed
Among Ukraine Fighters
The New York Times
Chechen Fighters among Ranks
of Rebel Militants in Ukraine, Self-Appointed Mayor Says
Fox News
Chechens Fighting in Ukraine Could Erode Support
for Separatists
Voice of America
Pro-Russia Troops Take
Symbol of Ukraine Uprising
The New York Times
Ukraine's Rebels in Crisis
After Donetsk 'Coup'
The Telegraph
Vostok Battalion, A Powerful
New Player In Eastern Ukraine
Ukraine to Push on with Army Offensive, Row Grows over
Russian Fighters Reports
Militants Plea to Russia
Goes Unanswered [VIDEO]
Ukraine's New Leader Vows
to Crush Rebels After Deadly
Ukraine's President-Elect
Vows Vengeance Over
Helicopter Attack
Who Is Petro Poroshenko?
Ukraine's Rescuer
Bravo, Ukraine, Bravo!
The American Interest
Sweet Victory
The Economist
A Sweeter Future for Ukraine
US News and World Report
A Two-Tone Election
The Economist
The Not-Very-Nice Things U.S. Officials Used to Say about Ukraine's New President
The Washington Post
Poroshenko Faces Many Tasks
as President, has Few Tools
to Handle Them
Kyiv Post
As He Woos Leaders Abroad, Ukraine's President Faces
Tough Realities at Home
Fox News
Ukraine's New President Needs
to Get Fellow Oligarchs to Stop Being So Corrupt
The New Republic
Ukraine's Search for
an Honest Thief
Kyiv Post
Is Poroshenko Ukraine's
George Washington? [VIDEO]
OSCE Loses Contact with Monitoring Team in Ukraine
USA Today
Russia says Monitors
Should Stay in Ukraine
USA Today
Ukraine PM Yatsenyuk in
Russia Border Demand
NATO says Bulk of Russian
Troops Pulling Back from
Ukraine Border
Russia Pulls Most Troops from Ukraine Border, Pentagon Says
Fox News
Russian Troop Withdrawal
Brings No Relief
in Eastern Ukraine
The Washington Post
In Ukraine War, Kremlin
Leaves No Fingerprints
The New York Times
Traffic of War in
a Border Town
Guns and Fighters Seep
Through Ukraine's Porous
Russian Border
The Guardian
Held at Gunpoint
by Ukraine Rebels
The Daily Beast
The Rot Among the
Rebels in Ukraine
The Daily Beast
Ukraine's Zombie Revolution
Donbas Diary: On the
Frontlines in Eastern Ukraine
The Wall Street Journal
At Ukraine's Perilous Border,
Law Is Dispensed by
Men in Masks
The New York Times
A Journalist Goes Missing
Nearly Every Day in Ukraine
The Independent
The Invisible Refugee Crisis
in Ukraine
The New Republic
The Chaos In East Ukraine Is
Hitting LGBT People
Particularly Hard
Akhmetov Is Shocked, Shocked
To Find That Separatism Is
Going On In Donetsk!
Ukraine's Puppet Masters
What Are Eastern Ukraine's (Legitimate) Grievances
With Kyiv?
In Ukraine, Separatist Militia
With Russian Fighters
Holds a Key
The New York Times
Behind the Masks in Ukraine,
Many Faces of Rebellion
The New York Times
A Guide To The Separatists
Of Eastern Ukraine
Ukraine Rebels Outfox Army to Dent Poroshenko Troop Goal
Ukraine's Forces will be Driven from Donetsk Vows New 'Prime Minister'
The Telegraph
In a City Near Russia, a Commander's Call to Battle
is Answered
The Washington Post
5 Dead as Pro-Russia Insurgents Attack Border Guards
in Eastern Ukraine
Fox News
Separatists Attack a Border
Guard Headquarters in
Eastern Ukraine
The New York Times
Ukraine Military Launches Offensive Against Rebels
Ukraine Pushes Back as
Rebels Attack in the East
The New York Times
The Sky Explodes Over
Luhansk, and Kiev Blames
the Separatists
The Daily Beast
Air Attack on Pro-Russian Separatists in Luhansk Kills 8, Stuns Residents
Despite Denials, All Evidence
For Deadly Explosion Points
To Kyiv
Separatists Blames Military
for Airstrikes [VIDEO]
Luhansk Dispatch:
Nowhere To Hide
Pro-Russian Rebels Take
Control of 3 Government
Bases in Eastern Ukraine
Fox News
Rebels in Eastern Ukraine
Capture Government Posts
The New York Times
Witness to a Ukraine Rebel Breakthrough
The New York Times
Conflicting Accounts in
Heightened Eastern
Ukraine Fiighting
Separatists, Government Troops Continue Faceoff in Eastern Ukraine
Fighting Rages in Eastern
Ukraine Town, Residents Flee
[Aftermath of an
Airstrike] [VIDEO]
Silence Surrounds Shelled Ukrainian Town [VIDEO]
'It's Hell Down There': Inside
the Battle for Eastern Ukraine
Sloviansk Residents Flee As Violence Escalates [VIDEO]
Eastern Ukraine Has Been a
Mafia State for Years. Can Kiev Break the Cycle of Violence?
The New Republic
Ukraine's Separatist Regions
Face A Bleak Economic Future
Business Insider
Army In Need: Volunteers Try
To Get Basic Supplies To
Ukraine's Forces
Delivering Bulletproof Vests
to the Ukrainian Army [VIDEO]
In Show of Support, Obama
Meets With Ukraine Leader
The New York Times
Obama Vows to Stand with
Ukraine as he Meets
President-Elect in Poland
Obama Urges Global
Help for Ukraine
USA Today
Moscow and Kiev Seek
'End to Bloodshed'
Vladimir Putin Discusses
Ceasefire with Ukraine President-Elect Petro
Poroshenko […]
The Telegraph
Petro Poroshenko Sworn In
as Ukraine President
The Wall Street Journal
Ukraine Swears In a
New President [VIDEO]
Petro Poroshenko Officially Becomes Fifth President of
Ukraine and Outlines Plan [...]
English-Language Translation
of Poroshenko's Inaugural
Address on June 7
Kyiv Post
Ukraine's Poroshenko Plans
New Team to Take on Putin,
Build Ties with West
Poroshenko Takes Ukraine
Helm With Tough Words
for Russia
The New York Times
Ukraine's New Leader Stands
Up to Moscow Over Crimea
and Europe
Ukraine's President Vows
to Defend Territory
'No Matter What'
Ukraine's Poroshenko Hails
'Start of Russia Dialogue'
Poroshenko Plots Path to
Ukraine Peace as Talks
to Start
Business Week
Rejecting Poroshenko, East
Ukraine Rebels Say Fight
Will Go On
Slovyansk Burns as New
Ukrainian President
Yearns for Peace
Ukraine Families Flee Into
the Forest to Escape Brutal
Fighting in Sloviansk
The Daily Beast
Ukraine's Humanitarian Crisis Worsens as Tens of Thousands
Flee Combat in East
The Guardian
There Is 'No Water, No Power,
No Nothing' In The Pro-Russian Stronghold In East Ukraine
Business Insider
Surrounded by War
In Sloviansk [VIDEO]
Battle for Slovyansk
Intensifies [VIDEO]
Europe's New Frontline:
Inside Slovyansk
Inside Slovyansk: A Week of Bombardment [VIDEO]
Ukraine's Refugee Crisis
Volunteer Movement Puts
Pressure on Government to Confront Refugee Crisis
Kyiv Post
Ukrainian Military Waits
For Government To Act On
Promises Of Support
Despite Clash in Ukraine, Cease-Fire Talks Advance
The New York Times
Ukrainian Troops Drive
Rebels Out of Mariupol
Ukraine Claims Full
Control of Port City
The New York Times
Ukraine, Separatists Battle to Control Border with Russia
Russians Yearning to Join
Ukraine Battle Find
Few Barriers
The New York Times
Tanks, of Unknown Origin,
Roll Into Ukraine
The New York Times
Russia and Ukraine's
Mystery Tanks
These Tanks are
Freaking Out Ukraine
Foreign Policy
Ukraine Says 3 Tanks
Cross from Russia
Ukrainian Official: Russian
Tanks have Entered
the Country
Ukraine Accuses Russia of
Letting Rebels Bring in Tanks
Ukraine says 'Russian Tank Incursion' Unacceptable
Putin in Talks with Ukraine President after Claims Tanks Crossed Border from Russia
The Guardian
In Ukraine Crisis, Tanks on One Hand and Words of Peace
on the Other
The Wasington Post
Russia and Ukraine Really
Have No Idea What's Going
on Along the Border
The New Republic
Russia Sent Tanks to
Ukraine Rebels, U.S. Says
The New York Times
Russia Acknowledges Sending
Aid to Eastern Ukraine;
Separatist Leader
Visits Moscow
The Wasington Post
US Accuses Russia of Sending Rocket Launchers to
Ukraine Rebels
The Telegraph
Kremlin-Backed Insurgents
Shoot Down Military Plane
in Luhansk, Killing 49 [...]
Kyiv Post
Ukrainian Military Plane Shot Down; All 49 Aboard Dead
Separatists Down Military
Transport Jet, Killing 49
in Eastern Ukraine
The New York Times
Ukraine Mourns 49 Troops Killed When Rebels Down Army Plane
Pro-Russian Rebels Shoot Down
a Large Ukrainian Transport
Plane, Killing Dozens
The Washington Post
Military Plane Shot
Down in Luhansk
Separatists Shoot Down
Ukrainian Plane [VIDEO]
Tension With Russia
Boils Over in Kiev
The Daily Beast
Ukraine Vows to Punish
Rebels who Downed Plane
Ukraine Hits Back After
Rebels Down Plane
Al Jazeera
Putin is Playing Mind
Games with the West
The Telegraph
Orchestrated Conflict
The New York Times
Igor Strelkov—Moscow Agent
or Military Romantic?
Open Democracy
A Ukraine Secessionist from Moscow Builds Greater Russia,
One Province at a Time
Atlantic Council
Russia Condemns Attack
on Kiev Embassy
Ukrainian Diplomat Uses Swear Word for Putin, Delighting Protesters and
Angering Moscow
The Washington Post
Kiev Faces Halt to Gas Supply
Russia Cuts Natural
Gas Supply to Ukraine
USA Today
Russia Cuts Off Natural Gas Supplies to Ukraine
CNN Money
Citing Unpaid Debts, Russia
Cuts Off Gas Supplies
To Ukraine
Gazprom Cuts Russia's
Natural Gas Supply
to Ukraine
The New York Times
Russia Cuts Off Gas to
Ukraine as Kiev Orders
Border Secured
EU-Moscow Row Over South Stream Gas Pipeline
Is South Stream The Latest
Victim Of the Ukraine Crisis?
Gazprom's Grip: Russia's
Leverage Over
Europe [GRAPHIC]
Ukraine Investigates
Gas Pipeline Blast
The Guardian
Ukraine Suspects Terrorism
in Pipeline Explosion
The New York Times
Ukraine to Implement
Unilateral Cease-Fire
Ukraine Proposes Peace
with Separatists
The Washington Post
Rebels Reject Peace
Proposal from Ukraine
The Washington Post
Rebels Reject Ukrainian
Leader's Cease-Fire Idea
The New York Times
Ukraine Separatists Vow to
Fight on as President Unveils Ceasefire Plan
The Guardian
As Military and Rebels Clash
in Ukraine, Doubt Falls on Cease-Fire Prospects
The New York Times
Ukrainian Army Fights
Rebels and Neglect
The Washington Post
What Options Do Putin
and Ukraine Have Left?
The New Republic
Bombings Force Sloviansk Residents to Flee [VIDEO]
Ukraine Rebels Speak of Heavy Losses in Battle against Government Troops
Putin, Ukraine Leader
Talk Peace in Phone Call
Ratchet Up, Ratchet Down
The Economist
Putin Is Just Getting
Started in Ukraine
The Daily Beast
Provocations, Proxies and Plausible Deniability
The Interpreter
Unblinking Putin
The Economist
NATO Reports New Russian
Troop Buildup along the
Ukrainian Border
The Washington Post
Russia Redeploying More
Troops Along Ukraine Border,
U.S. Officials Say
The Washington Post
Common History Pulls in
Aid from West Russia
As Ukraine Announces Cease-
Fire, White House Points
Finger at Russia
The New York Times
Ukraine Implements
Cease-Fire in Restive East
Details of Poroshenko's
Peace Plan Emerge
Ukraine's President Outlines
Peace Plan as Vladimir Putin
Offers Support
The Telegraph
Russia's Putin Calls for Compromise in Ukraine
The Washington Post
Vladimir Putin Backs Ukraine Ceasefire but Orders Huge
Military Exercise
The Guardian
Conflicting Gestures From
Putin to Ukraine Leaders
The New York Times
Putin Attempts to Straddle
a Divide He Helped to
Pry Open in Ukraine
The New York Times
Ukrainian Border Guards Hurt
in Separatist Attack on 1st Day
of Cease-Fire
Rebels Agree to Abide by Cease-Fire in Ukraine
Pro-Russian Rebels in Ukraine Match Government Cease-Fire
The New York Times
Ukraine Rebel Leaders Agree
to Join Government Cease-Fire, Begin Talks
The Wall Street Journal
Separatists Hold their Fire in Ukraine's East amid Peace
Talks led by Kuchma [...]
The Kyiv Post
How Real Is This
Ceasefire in Ukraine?
Putin Waves a
White Flag on Ukraine
Daily Beast
Putin Readies Stealth
Mode in Ukraine
Bloomberg View
Russia's Putin Renounces
Right to Send Troops
to Ukraine
Putin Urges Extension
of Ukraine Cease-Fire
The New York Times
Ukrainian helicopter Shot
Down Days After Cease-Fire, Official Says
Ukrainian Cease-Fire on Verge
of Collapse After Rebel Attack
on Military Helicopter Kills 11
The Washington Post
Ukrainian Cease-Fire in
Peril amid New Violence>
USA Today
In Ukraine, Signs of
a Truce Unraveling
Business Week
Ukraine Set to Sign EU Pact
that Sparked Revolution
The Guardian
Defying Russia, Ukraine
Signs E.U. Trade Pact
The New York Times
Ukraine Signs Landmark Agreement with E.U.
The Washington Post
EU Signs Trade Pact with
Ukraine, Ceasefire
Extended by 72 hours
Russia and Others Confer
on Halting Ukraine Fighting,
Which Goes on Despite
The New York Times
Putin Holds Talks With
EU Leaders in Ukraine
Peace Push
Shelling Continues in
Separatist Stronghold [VIDEO]
Pro-Russian Rebels Release
Four of Eight OSCE Monitors
Held Hostage [...]
Kyiv Post
Ukraine, Russia Agree to
Work on Ceasefire as
Deadline Passes
The Globe and Mail
Ukraine Leaders Meets
Security Chiefs as
Ceasefire End Nears
In Ukraine, Frustration Grows
With Kiev's Peace Efforts
The Wall Street Journal
The Ceasefire That
Wasn't [VIDEO]
Ukrainian President Ends Cease-Fire With Rebels
The New York Times
Poroshenko Ends Ukraine Ceasefire, says Government
Will Attack Rebels
Ukraine Forces Press Assault
Hours after Ceasefire's
The Washington Post
Ukraine Begins Military
Offensive as Cease-Fire Ends
Ukraine Launches New
Offensive to Rid East of
Rebel 'Parasites'
The Telegraph
The War That Never
Ended [VIDEO]
As Ukraine Cease-Fire
Expires, Violence Escalates
The Washington Post
Putin Warns Again of Force
as Ukraine Fighting Spreads
The New York Times
Ukraine Forces Attack Rebel Positions, Putin Growls
Ukraine Retakes Border Crossing from Rebels as Poroshenko
Goes on Attack
The Guardian
Pro-Russian Rebels Capture
Police HQ in Ukraine
Russia Demands New
Cease-Fire in Ukraine
The New York Times
Berlin Talks Bring Russia
and Ukraine Closer to
Resuming Ceasefire
Ukraine and Russia's Foreign Ministers Agree to Seek
Bilateral Ceasefire
The Telegraph
The EU Plays Into
Putin's Hands—Again
Ukrainians Die, as Europe Coos
World Affairs Journal
Ukraine's Poroshenko Names
New Defence Chiefs in
Ukraine's New Defence Minister Promises Crimea Victory
Ukraine Claims Winning
Ground in Rebellious East
Ukraine Claims Victory as
Rebel Fighters Reportedly
Flee Slavyansk
The Telegraph
Ukraine Claims Victory
in Rebel Stronghold
Pro-Russian Fighters Routed
From Stronghold,
Ukraine Says
The New York Times
Ukraine Government Forces Recapture Separatist
Ukraine Army Regains
Control of Slavyansk
The Guardian
Rebels Flee Slovyansk as
Ukrainian Forces Recapture
Key City
The Washington Post
Ukrainian President Hails Breakthrough as Slavyansk
Seized from Separatists
The Guardian
Ukraine Recaptures
Sloviansk [VIDEO]
Ukrainian Authorities:
Separatists Cleared from
2 Eastern Cities
Ukraine says Forces Retake
Two More Rebel-Held Cities
Ukraine Military Finds Its
Footing Against
Pro-Russian Rebels
The New York Times
Ukraine Rolls on Separatists
while Russia Holds Back
USA Today
Ukraine's Lawless Warzones Recede as Rebel Fighters
Fall Back
Donetsk Rebels in
Mass Withdrawal
Rebels Retreat
To Donetsk [VIDEO]
Separatists Rally In Donetsk
As Ukrainian Military
Presses On
Pro-Russia Separatists Vow
to Keep Up the Fight
With Talks Uncertain,
Ukrainian Rebels Cling
to Hope in Strongholds
The New York Times
Ukraine Rebels Are
Retreating for Last Stand
The New York Times
Pro-Russia Rebels Prepare
Last Stand in East Ukraine
The Wall Street Journal
Ukraine's Pro-Putin Rebels
Prepare for a Last Stand
The Daily Beast
Ukraine and Pro-Russian
Rebels Square Up
for Showdown
The Guardian
Pushed from Slaviansk,
Ukraine Rebels
Barricade Donetsk
Donetsk Becomes a
Ghost Town as Fearful
Residents Flee Conflict
The Guardian
Bridges Destroyed
Outside Donetsk
Ukraine Forces Working to
Block Donetsk, Official Says
The Wall Street Journal
Ukraine Lays Plan to Besiege Rebels in Eastern City
The Wall Street Journal
The Siege
The Wall Street Journal
The Turn of the Tide
The Wall Street Journal
Ukraine Army Still Far from
Victory over Rebels in East
Why Ukraine Can't Win an
All-Out Military Victory—and Shouldn't Try
Business Week
Ukraine's Next Battle
is Donetsk, but no
Bombs, Please
USA Today
Ukraine Readies Plan against Rebels; Germany, France
Press Putin
Ukraine Threatens to Retake Territory from Defiant Rebels
Ukraine Forces Clash with Separatists at Donetsk Airport
Heavy Fighting Kills at
Least 23 in Eastern Ukraine
The Wall Street Journal
Ukraine Says Rebels Will Pay
as Missiles Kill 23 Soldiers
Residents of Stricken Eastern Ukraine Town Flee [...]
The Globe and Mail
Anticipating a Showdown,
Ukraine City Empties Out
The New York Times
People in Eastern Ukraine
City Decide to Stay or Go
USA Today
The Russia-Ukraine Conflict
Could Tear My Family Apart
The New Republic
Life in a War Zone—Ukraine
The Guardian
A Guide to Ukraine's
Fighting Forces
Kiev Post
Ukraine Woman Pilot
Savchenko in Middle
of Media War
The Strange Case of Vladimir
Putin and the Ukrainian Pilot
Russian Revenge: Ukrainian Female Officer Faces Court
in Voronezh [...]
Kiev Post
Meet The Tough-As-Nails
Ukrainian Pilot That Russia
Wants To Try For Murder
Soot-Stained Documents
Reveal Firing Squad
Executions in Ukraine
Shadowy Rebel Flexes
Iron Fist in Ukraine Fight
The New York Times
After Slaviansk's Fall, Splits
Open in Ukraine Rebel Ranks
Divisions Appear among
Ukraine's Pro-Russian
The Globe and Mail
Patchwork Makeup of Rebels Fighting Ukraine Makes Peace Talks Elusive
The New York Times
Ukraine Rebels Call Putin a
Coward After Russian Inaction
Seeing Cost of Saber Rattling
in Ukraine, Putin Alters Course
The New York Times
Putin Under Pressure as
Fighting Rages in Ukraine
Putin's Ukraine Assault: In a Shambles but Far From Over
The Wall Street Journal
Total Rebel Defeat Not Seen
as an Acceptable Option
in the Kremlin
The Jamestown Foundation
Putin's Moves on Ukraine
Keep West Guessing
The Wall Street Journal
Putin's Three Choices
on Ukraine
The Washington Post
Putin's Complicated
Game in Ukraine
Stop Playing Putin's Game
Bloomberg View
Putin Is Behaving in Ukraine
Like Milosevic Did in Serbia
The New Republic
NATO Chief Warns of Duplicity
by Putin on Ukraine
The New York Times
Civilians Pay a Price for
Gains of Ukraine Forces
The New York Times
Fighting Flares Near
City of Luhansk
Rockets Ravage
Suburb of Donetsk
Ukrainian Forces Close In
on Rebel-Held Luhansk
The New York Times
Fighting Surges in Ukraine
With Civilian Death
Inside Russia
The Wall Street Journal
Russia Warns Ukraine after
Shell Crosses Border
Russia Warns Ukraine of 'Irreversible Consequences'
after Cross-Border Shelling
The Washington Post
Russia Vows to Respond After Shelling From Ukraine
Ukraine Military Plane Shot
Down as Fighting Rages
Ukrainian Military Plane Shot Down; Pro-Russian Separatists
Take Responsibility
Ukraine says Russian Army
Officers Fighting alongside
As Ukrainian Forces Advance,
Putin Plays a Double Game
Don't be Deceived:
Russia is Waging War
War By Any Other Name
The Economist
Hybrid Warfare And Russia's
New 'Great Game' [PODCAST]
The Sci-Fi Writers' War
Why Ukraine's Separatist Movement Failed in Kharkiv
The New Republic
Modernisation or Burnt Ground, What Awaits Donetsk Oblast
Fight Club, Donetsk
Foreign Policy
My Mind-Melting Week on
the Battlefields of Ukraine
The New Republic
In Parts of East Ukraine,
a Daily Struggle to Survive
U.N. Report Details
Casualties in Eastern Ukraine
The New York Times
UN Says Hundreds Killed,
Detained In Ukraine
The Guardian
Ukraine's Humanitarian
Situation [GRAPHIC]
Refugees From Eastern
Ukraine Wonder When
They Can Go Home
Two Weeks Held
Captive by Terrorists
Voices of Ukraine
[DPR Hostage: ] I Thought They Would Beat Me to Death […]
Voices of Ukraine
Russia's Nationalist Fringe
Takes Center Stage In
Eastern Ukraine
The Involvement of Russian
Ultra-Nationalists in the
Donbas Conflict
The Jamestown Foundation
Russian Nationalist Thinker
Dugin Sees War with Ukraine
Gangsters And Fascists And Separatists—Oh My!
The Gangs Of Crimea
And Donbas [PODCAST]
Dossier of Dubiousness: Did
Putin's Man in Crimea Have
Mafia Ties?
Meet the Ex-Convicts, Bullies,
and Armed Bikers Who Helped Seize Crimea
Atlantic Council
Crimea Euphoria Fades
for Some Russians
For Crimea, It's Russian
Troops In, Tourists Out
The New York Times
Tourist Season a Washout
in Annexed Crimea
Now That Russia Has Crimea,
What Is Moscow's Plan?
In Taking Crimea, Putin Gains
a Sea of Fuel Reserves
The New York Times
Ravenous Russia?
Thirsty Crimea
Will Putin Pay $90 Billion
for Crimea?
Crimea and Punishment
Ukraine's New President
Vows Not To Give Up Crimea
Is Crimea Gone? Annexation
No Longer the Focus of
Ukraine Crisis
The Budapest
Memorandum And Its
Relevance To Crimea
Discussions on Crimea's
Status Become Illegal
Dear Kremlin:
Careful with Crimea
Foreign Policy
[Russia Invades the Crimean Peninsula] [VIDEO]
[At Ukraine's Naval High
Command in Sevastopol] [VIDEO]
[At the Slavutych, a Ukrainian Battleship Stuck in the Harbor
of Sevastopol] [VIDEO]
[The Russian Black Sea Fleet
Block Donuzlav Bay] [VIDEO]
[Serbian Chetniks in Crimea] [VIDEO]
[Ukrainian and the Russian Checkpoints in Kherson] [VIDEO]
[Protest and Counter-
Protest in Simferopol] [VIDEO]
Some Leaving Crimea Ahead
of Referendum [VIDEO]
Fear Is In The Air
Among Crimean Tatars
Russian Takeover Of Crimea
Leaves Ethnic Tatars
Population In Panic
Vladimir Putin Tells Crimea's
Tatars their Future Lies
with Russia
The Guardian
Crimea Tatars:
'Homeland' at Stake
Al Jazeera
Portraits from Ukraine:
A Crimean Tatar's Story
The New Yorker
Russia's Looming
Tatar Problem [PODCAST]
Crimea Crisis:
The Tatarstan Factor
Al Jazeera
Russian-Majority Areas Watch Moscow's Post-Crimea Moves
BBC News
Russian President Putin Builds
Ties in Moldova, Kazakhstan
and Baltics
The Washington Post
Transnistria: Europe's
Other Crimea
Al Jazeera
Could Trans-Dniester be Next?
BBC News
To Russia with Love? Transnistria,
a Territory Caught in a Time Warp
A Sunday With "Separatists"
Soviet Yearnings: Hopes Rise
in Transnistria of a Russian Annexation
Russia Wags The Dog With Ukraine Disinformation Campaign
Radio Free Europe/
Radio Liberty
"To watch the television news in Russia is to be pulled into a swirling, 24-hour vortex of alarmist proclamations of Western aggression, sinister claims of rising fascism and breathless accounts of imminent hostilities by the 'illegal' Ukrainian government in Kiev, which has proved itself in recent days to be largely powerless."
Russia Is Quick to Bend
Truth About Ukraine
The The New York Times
"But the state-controlled media's relentless portrayal of Euromaidan protesters as Western-funded extremists appears to be turning the tide.
"Lev Gudkov, a sociologist at Russia's independent Levada polling center, says that 'there isn't a single resource providing balanced and comprehensive information.'
" 'All the main channels are engaged in pure demagogy. I'm afraid that imperial complexes, the remains of imperial consciousness, will rise to the surface and be resurrected', Gudkov says.
"Gudkov predicts a rift in public opinion between educated, city-dwelling Russians and those living in small towns with only limited access online news sites.
" 'I think the reaction will be mixed. The conviction that Russia should not interfere will persist, compounded with fear of the conflicts growing into a full-flown war between Russia and Ukraine', Gudkov says.
" 'But this opinion will be held mostly among educated people living in big cities. In the provinces, people are more likely to support the policy and approve of Putin.'
"Russian opposition activists and rights advocates have been quick to lambast Putin for bringing their nation to the brink of war with Ukraine.
"Police in Moscow arrested dozens of activists at antiwar demonstrations at the Defense Ministry and on Manezh Square, near the Kremlin, where protesters unfurled a banner reading 'For Your Freedom And Ours'. It was the same slogan used in an August 1968 demonstration on Red Square against the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia.
"A number of Russian luminaries, including rock musician Yury Shevchuk, have also delivered unusually harsh critiques of the Kremlin.
"One of the most virulent attacks so far has come from Andrei Zubov, a prominent political analyst and a professor at at MGIMO, the prestigious Moscow State Institute of International Relations.
"In an article published by the daily 'Vedemosti', Zubov compared Putin to Adolf Hitler and accused him of seeking to instigate 'political dictatorship.' " Russians Ambivalent As Putin Threatens Ukraine Invasion
A Borderland on the Edge
"Interestingly, the message from authoritarian regimes in Moscow and Kiev was not so different from some of what was written during the uprising in the English-speaking world, especially in publications of the far left and the far right. From Lyndon LaRouche's Executive Intelligence Review through Ron Paul's newsletter through The Nation and The Guardian, the story was essentially the same: little of the factual history of the protests, but instead a play on the idea of a nationalist, fascist, or even Nazi coup d'état."
Ukraine: The Haze of Propaganda
The New York Review of Books
"Parliament declared that he had abandoned his responsibilities, followed the protocols that applied to such a case, and continued the process of constitutional reform by itself. Presidential elections were called for May, and a new government was formed...Although one can certainly debate the constitutional nuances, this process was not a coup. And it certainly was not fascist. Reducing the powers of the president, calling presidential elections, and restoring the principles of democracy are the opposite of what fascism would demand. Leaders of the Jewish community have declared their unambiguous support for the new government and their total opposition to the Russian invasion [of Crimea].
"Of the eighteen cabinet posts that have been filled in the new government, three are held by members of the far right party, Svoboda. Its leader had less than 2 percent support in a recent opinion poll...[T]his is the grain of truth from which, according to the traditional rules of propaganda, Putin's 'fascist coup' has been concocted."
Crimea: Putin vs. Reality
The New York Review of Books
protesters.' " What's Next for the Euromaidan?
" 'The Right Sector was not the leading force of Maidan and was not the leading force of the revolution', said Shekhovtsov. At their core, protests were not about nationalism, but fighting rampant corruption in Viktor Yanukovich's government. Any respect that the Right Sector earned on Maidan had nothing to do with their far-right political sentiments, he added.
"At the end of March, Right Sector registered as a political party and the organisation's leader, Dmitry Yarosh, announced his intention to run in Ukraine's May 25 presidential election, according to Ukrainian media reports.
"While registering as a political party will give Yarosh greater control over who can be a member of the Right Sector, there is little chance that the new party will have any success at the polls, said Yuriy Yakymenko, the Director of Political and Legal Programmes at Razumkov Centre, a Kiev-based, non-governmental think-tank.
"In a presidential poll from the Kiev International Institute of Sociology taken from April 29 - May 11, Yarosh is coming in with less than one percent of support.
"The ultra-nationalist party, Svoboda, hasn't experienced much of a boost in its popularity since the EuroMaidan protests ended either, though they did gain several positions in the new Kiev government.
"One of two deputy prime ministers, Oleksandr Sych is a member of Svoboda as are the ecology, agricultural and education ministers.
"[Oleh] Tyahnybok [, Svoboda's leader,] is currently a presidential candidate in the upcoming May 25 election and is polling at one percent, a three percent drop in his numbers from March.
"The true marker of where Svoboda stands will come during the next parliamentary election, which is currently scheduled for 2017, though a snap election might occur after this weekend's presidential election.
"But it is unlikely that Svoboda will ever regain the momentum it had in 2012, said Anatoliy Oktysiuk, a senior analyst for the International Center for Policy Studies and an expert on Ukrainian far-right movements.
"The party's main appeal for Ukrainian voters in the past was that it was openly critical of Yanukovich. 'Now that the old president is gone, Svoboda will either have to go mainstream, or risk fading away', said Oktysiuk.
"As for ultra-nationalists like the Right Sector, they are likely to just disappear as a political group, said Shekhovtsov. 'The Ukrainian people have no taste for political extremism.' " Ukraine's Far-Right:
Popular or Propaganda?
Al Jazeera
A Borderland on the Edge
" 'Yes, we are well aware that the political opposition and the forces of social protests who have secured changes for the better are made up of different groups. They include nationalistic groups, but even the most marginal do not dare show anti-Semitism or other xenophobic behavior. And we certainly know that our very few nationalists are well-controlled by civil society and the new Ukrainian government—which is more than can be said for the Russian neo-Nazis, who are encouraged by your security services.' " Ukrainian Jews Slam Putin in Full-Page Ad in New York Times
"I put the same question to a roomful of senior citizens in one of the country's 32 Jewish social-service centers. The group, which was mostly women, laughed out loud. They faced plenty of problems: the standard old-age pension in Ukraine is only about $100 a month, pitifully little even in this poor country. But the Russian claim that gangs of neo-Nazis are roaming Ukraine, threatening its Jewish population, evoked unanimous scorn from every Jewish person I talked to in the country." Ukraine's Phantom
Neo-Nazi Menace
The Atlantic
" 'They made a Jew the governor. What kind of anti-Semitism is this?' asked Solomon Flaks, the 87-year-old chairman of the region's Council of Jewish Veterans of the Great Patriotic War, a group of a rapidly shrinking number of World War II veterans." Among Ukraine's Jews, the
Bigger Worry Is Putin,
Not Pogroms
The New York Times
Ukraine Safe for Minorities
"Th[e]...second thing that goes unnoticed [is that t]he authoritarian far right in Russia is infinitely more dangerous than the authoritarian far right in Ukraine. It is in power, for one thing. It has no meaningful rivals, for another. It does not have to accommodate itself to international expectations, for a third. And it is now pursuing a foreign policy that is based openly upon the ethnicization of the world. It does not matter who an individual is according to law or his own preferences: The fact that he speaks Russian makes him a Volksgenosse requiring Russian protection, which is to say invasion. The Russian parliament granted Putin the authority to invade the entirety of Ukraine and to transform its social and political structure, which is an extraordinarily radical goal. It also sent a missive to the Polish foreign ministry proposing a partition of Ukraine. On popular Russian television Jews are blamed for the Holocaust; in the major newspaper Izvestiia Hitler is rehabilitated as a reasonable statesman responding to unreasonable western pressure. The pro-war demonstrations supporting the invasion of Ukraine are composed of people who wear monochrome uniforms and march in formation. The Russian intervention in eastern Ukraine involves generating ethnic violence, not suppressing it. The man who raised the Russian flag in Donetsk was a member of a neo-Nazi party." Ukrainian Extremists Will Only Triumph if Russia Invades
The New Republic
Russia Wags The Dog With
Ukraine Disinformation Campaign
Radio Free Europe/
Radio Liberty
Putin the Predictable
The New Republic
"Putin claims that he is defending the rights of speakers of Russian in Ukraine. He has used this argument to justify his invasion of Crimea...
"If speakers of Russian were suffering discrimination, that would give rise to concern, though not justify invasion. In fact, Russian is a completely normal language of interchange in Ukraine. There, tens of millions of Russian-speakers read a free press, watch uncontrolled television and learn from an uncensored internet, in either Ukrainian or in Russian, as they prefer.
"In Russia, the major social media have been brought under state control, television has been almost completely subdued and several of the remaining free-thinking blogs and internet news sites have been shut down or pressured. This leaves Ukraine as an island of free speech for people who use the Russian language.
"There is a country where millions of Russian-speakers lack basic rights. That country is the Russian Federation. There is a neighbouring country where tens of millions of Russian-speakers enjoy basic rights—despite the disruptions of a revolution and Russian invasion. That country is Ukraine. As the joke goes, Ukraine is a country where people speak Russian, while Russia is a country where people stay quiet in Russian." Freedom in Russian
Exists Only in Ukraine
London Evening Standard
as the Crisis in Ukraine Flared
The Guardian
"Russian media also widely reported that more than 650,000 Ukrainians have crossed out of southeastern Ukraine into Russia since the beginning of the year. However, the UN's High Commissioner on Refugees says it has seen no evidence of unusual migration on the border.
"Other stories have a basis in fact, but are unjustifiably spun by Russian media accounts. For instance, on the night of February 27-28, unknown vandals defaced a synagogue in Simferopol.
"Russian media blankly reported this as an anti-Semitic attack by the ultranationalist Right Sector group, although Right Sector denied it and the local Jewish community leader Oleksandr Hendin told RFE/RL: 'I don't think it was Right Sector. I think someone did this using their logo in order to destabilize Crimea.' "
Russia Wags The Dog With
Ukraine Disinformation Campaign
Radio Free Europe/
Radio Liberty
"This, Russian sociologist Lev Gudkov, director of the independent Levada Center, says, is a fundamental purpose of propaganda. 'In propaganda it is very important to consider the effect of squeezing out alternative versions of events, all alternative information. As a result, even people who don't believe or who doubt the official information are not in a position to work with other points of view. And this is the foundation of propaganda.' "
Russia Wags The Dog With
Ukraine Disinformation
Radio Free Europe/
Radio Liberty
Crimea: Putin vs. Reality
The New York Review of Books
World Affairs Journal
Fascism, Russia, and Ukraine
The New York Review of Books
...appeared [at a certain point in the Maidan protest movement] many anti-Semitic materials that state that the Jews organized the Maidan. That's completely absurd, but it's believed by those who with batons and shields face down the activists. They [the riot police] are being told: look, the Maidan is the work of Jews, so don't spare anyone, beat them all.' " Ukraine's Chief Rabbi Refutes Putin's Anti-Semitic Charges
World Affairs Journal
"More subtly, what this campaign does is attempt to reduce the social tensions in a complex country to a battle of symbols about the past. Ukraine is not a theater for the historical propaganda of others or a puzzle from which pieces can be removed. It is a major European country whose citizens have important cultural and economic ties with both the European Union and Russia. To set its own course, Ukraine needs normal public debate, the restoration of parliamentary democracy, and workable relations with all of its neighbors. Ukraine is full of sophisticated and ambitious people. If people in the West become caught up in the question of whether they are largely Nazis or not, then they may miss the central issues in the present crisis.
"In fact, Ukrainians are in a struggle against both the concentration of wealth and the concentration of armed force in the hands of Viktor Yanukovych and his close allies. The protesters might be seen as setting an example of courage for Americans of both the left and the right. Ukrainians make real sacrifices for the hope of joining the European Union. Might there be something to be learned from that among Euroskeptics in London or elsewhere? This is a dialogue that is not taking place."
Fascism, Russia, and Ukraine
The New York Review of Books
Ukraine: The Haze of Propaganda
The New York Review of Books
Ukraine: The Haze of Propaganda
The New York Review of Books
War of Words
Foreign Policy
Ukraine: Putin's Denial
The New York Review of Books
Russia Wags The Dog With
Ukraine Disinformation Campaign
Putin's Propaganda Campaign
National Review
Russia Is Quick to
Bend truth About Ukraine
The New York Times
Is Russia's Nightly News
Diet Skewed? [VIDEO]
Pro-Russian Network Behind
the Anti-Ukrainian Defamation
Anton Shekhovtsov's Blog
Russia's Online-Comment Propaganda Army
The Atlantic
Documents Show How Russia's Troll Army Hit America
Russian Propaganda Machine 'Worse than Soviet Union'
Russia's Propaganda
Worse Now [VIDEO]
How Russia Is Winning
the Propaganda War
Russian Professor Explains
Media Manipulation
Exposing Putin's Propaganda
Accuracy in Media
We Will Take No
Lessons from Russia
The Telegraph
President Putin's Fiction:
10 False Claims about Ukraine
U.S. Department of State
Russian Fiction the Sequel:
10 More False Claims
About Ukraine
U.S. Department of State
Top 10 Kremlin Myths & Lies
used to justify Russian invasion
of Ukraine's Crimea
Kyiv Post
Putin's Crimea
Propaganda Machine
The Daily Beast
Crimea: Putin vs. Reality
The New York Review of Books
In Crimea, Putin Has 'Lost
His Mind' Fighting For Survival
Putin's Breathtaking Lies
about Russia
Russia's Propaganda War is
a Danger for Ukraine's Jews
The Guardian
Ukraine: Hate in Progress
The New York Review of Books
Ukraine, Putin TV
and the Big Lie
On Putin's RT Network, the EU,
U.S., and Fascist Thugs Are to
Blame for the Mess in Ukraine
Answering Russia Today's
"Questions On Ukraine The
West Chooses Not To Answer"
How The Truth Is
Made At Russia Today
Watch RT, Putin's TV
Network, Call the Cops on Me
The Daily Beast
RT Anchor Liz Wahl
Explains Why She Quit
The Daily Beast
The Putin Pulitzers
The Daily Beast
Russia's President
Annexes...Words [VIDEO]
The Kidnapping Of Journalists
Is The Latest Step In Ukraine Propaganda Wars
3 Ways the Russian
Government Plans
to Police the Web
Global Voices
'Guardian' Op-Ed Quotes Cryptic Odesa 'Doctor' Seen As Hoax
The Putin Doctrine: Myth,
Provocation, Blackmail,
or the Real Deal?
The American Interest
Vladimir Putin: The
Rebuilding of 'Soviet' Russia
BBC News
Putinism as the Last
Phase of Sovietism
Let the Past Collapse on Time!
The New York Review of Books
Through The Crimean Prism:
Five Things We've Learned
About Russia
After Annexing Crimea,
Euphoric Russia Turns
Thoughts to Ukraine
The New York Times
Putin Then And Now [PODCAST]
Autocrat Man [PODCAST]
Putin's Rasputin
The London Review of Books
Putin's Brain
Foreign Affairs
Alexander Dugin: The
Crazy Ideologue of the
New Russian Empire
The Daily Beast
The Russian Enigma: Is
The Bear Turning East?
Russia is Remaking itself as the
Leader of the Anti-Western World
The Washington Post
Russia's Anti-Western Ideology
has Global Consequences
The Washington Post
Putin's Western Allies
Foreign Affairs
'A Partner for Russia': Europe's
Far Right Flirts with Moscow
Europe's Far Right
Is Embracing Putin
Business Insider
Far Right Fever for a
Europe Tied to Russia
The New York Times
The Right Model for
the Right Europeans
EuroMaidan PR
Putin, Ukraine, Europe,
and the Right
National Review
Decrying Ukraine's 'Fascists,'
Putin Is Allying With Europe's
Far Right
The Nation
Far-Right Forces are
Influencing Russia's
Actions in Crimea
The New Republic
Is Putin a New Hitler
(In the Making)?
Anton Shekhovtsov's Blog
Putin is Turning Both Left
and Right-Wingers into
Apologists for Despotism
The Independent
'Progressive' Silence
on Putin's Aggression
Kyiv Post
Meet Vladimir Putin's
American Apologist
The New Republic
Meet Stephen F. Cohen,
Vladimir Putin's Best Friend
in the American Media
The Daily Beast
Putin's American Toady at
'The Nation' Gets Even Toadier
The New Republic
Putin's Useful Idiots
The New York Times
The Sympathy Problem:
Is Germany a Country of
Russia Apologists?
Why Germans Love Russia
The New York Times
A Sober Look: It's Time To
Stop Romanticizing Russia
How the 'Realists'
Misjudged Ukraine
The Daily Beast
Putin's Aggression Is
Not America's Fault!
The New Republic
The West Must Not Blame
Itself for Putin's Revanchism
Ukraine and the
Crisis of the West
National Review
Waking Up to the
Russian Threat
The Wall Street Journal
Ukraine's Wake-Up
Call for NATO
The Washington Post
In Shadow Of Ukraine, A
Return To Rivalry Between
NATO And Russia
In Cold War Echo, Obama
Strategy Writes Off Putin
The New York Times
A Need to Contain Russia
The Washington Post
The End of the Putin Mystique
The Washington Post
Putin's Patriotism is Phony,
His Desperation is Real
The Daily Beast
Putin Has Always Been
A 'Playground Bully'
Vladimir's Not-Excellent
The Wall Street Journal
The Loneliness of Vladimir Putin
The New Republic
Vladimir Putin, Victim?
What Drives Vladimir Putin?
National Review
Is Vladimir Putin Irrational?
Is Vladimir Putin Insane? Hardly
The Los Angeles Times
Forgiving Putin—Again
The Wall Street Journal
Crimea and Punishment
The Weekly Standard
How to Punish Putin
The New York Times
Sanctions: Potential
Economic Damage
BBC News
U.S. Targets Putin's
Banker, Threatens trade
CNN Money
US Sanctions Target
Putin's Inner Circle
BBC News
Russian Officials
Targeted by Sanctions
BBC News
U.S. Sanctions on
Russia Begin to Bite
CNN Money
Sanctions Erode Russia's
Improved Business Practices
The Globe and Mail
Putin's Powerful Friends Rally
Around Russian President
Despite Sanctions
Defiant Russia Shrugs
Off Sanctions
CNN Money
Putin Imposes Secret
Sanctions on Pro-Gay
Obama Campaign Donors
The Daily Beast
New US Sanctions on
Russia Remain Too Little
Atlantic Council
Sanctions: What Could
be the Next Move?
BBC News
Punishing Russia Carries Risks
Council on Foreign Relation
The West's Tricky Trade
Relationship with Russia
The French Ask: Should We Be Building Warships For Russia?
Putin says Expects France
to Honor Warships Contract
Sanctions Put Pentagon's
Business Deals With Russia
Up For Debate
Sanctions Leave U.S.
Companies Jittery Over Murky Russian Business Ties
Why Russia No Longer
Fears the West
Western Banks Lend
Billions to Russia
CNN Money
Russians Spend
Billions on Europe Deals
CNN Money
11 Intriguing Things Owned
by Wealthy Russians
Six Numbers That Explain
Why Europe Can't Get Its
Act Together On Russia
Business Insider
Russia's Big Bet
on Putinomics
The Washington Post
Russia's Western Enablers
The Washington Post
Why Europe will Balk
at Russian Sanctions
CNN Money
European Firms Seek to
Minimize Russia Sanctions
The New York Times
The EU Hesitates
to Act over Ukraine
Global Post
What Will Sanctions Mean for London's Russian Oligarchs?
The Guardian
UK Seeking to Ensure Russia Sanctions Do Not Harm
City of London
The Guardian
British Officials Oppose
Sanctions Because Russia's
Elite Are London's Cash Cows
The New Republic
How Vladimir Putin's
Cheerleaders Enjoy the
Good Life in Britain
The Telegraph
Divisions in Europe on
Sanctions Mean Russia Need
Not Change Ukraine Aims
The Guardian
Putin May Have An Opening To Rebuild Relations With West
The Sanctions Dilemma
Council on Foreign Relation
Time to Rethink Sanctions
Against Russia and Aid
to Ukraine
CNN Money
Tracing Russian Economic Assets—and Targets for More Sanctions
The Weekly Standard
How Russia Inc. Moves Billions Offshore—and a Handful of Tax Havens May Hold Key
to Sanctions
Are Tax Havens Next to
Pressure Russia on Ukraine? [VIDEO]
Activist Investor Chased out of Russia Explains How to Really
Hurt Putin
The Globe and Mail
Oil Industry Key to
Sanctions on Russia [VIDEO]
The Rachel Maddow Show
Oil Mega-Corporations Key to
Leverage over Russia [VIDEO]
The Rachel Maddow Show
How Does Europe Wean
Itself Off Russian Gas?
How Europe can Kick
its Russian Gas Habit
Global Post
Russia Fallout Pushes
Europe to Develop Shale Gas
CNN Money
EU-Moscow Row Over South Stream Gas Pipeline
Is South Stream The Latest
Victim Of the Ukraine Crisis?
Russian Economic Forum
Boycotted Over Ukraine Crisis
Russia Economy Worsens
Even Before Sanctions Hit
The New York Times
Flex Muscle Spending Has Left
Putin's Russia in an Economic
Freeze Frame
The Daily Beast
Russia's Finance Minister
Predicts Zero Growth
IMF Slashes Russia
Growth Forecast
CNN Money
Recession Warning for Russia
CNN Money
Russian Ruble Rattled by
Renewed Ukraine Unrest
CNN Money
Russia's Credit Rating Cut As Country's Economy Falters
Russia Raises Rate to Bolster Economy After S.&P. Cuts
Its Debt Rating
The New York Times
Russia Cites Economic Fallout
from Crimea Annexation
The Los Angeles Times
Ukraine Crisis Hurting
Russia's Economy [VIDEO]
Swedish FM: Crisis Hurts
Russian Economy [VIDEO]
Crisis Reveals Serious
Cracks in Putin's Empire
Is Putin Next?
World Affairs Journal
Why Russia Is So
Worried About Ukraine
Why Putin Fears Ukraine:
It's an Alternative Russia
The Wall Street Journal
What's Happening in Kiev Right
Now Is Vladimir Putin's Worst Nightmare
The New Republic
Kiev Envy
Foreign Policy
Russians Ambivalent As Putin Threatens Ukraine Invasion
Putin Draws Wrong Lessons
From Yanukovych
World Affairs Journal
Putin Wins in Russia Only by
Escalating his War Rhetoric
The Washington Post
Russia's War in Crimea Could
Have Happened 20 Years Ago,
But Didn't. This Is What Changed
The New Republic
Crimea-happy Russians Want Gorbachev to Pay for Loss of
Soviet Empire
The Washington Post
In The Wake Of Crimea
Annexation, Patriotism Reigns
In Russian Classrooms
Statement for Sub-Committee
on Human Rights of the
European Parliament on
the Situation in Russia
Xenophobic Chill
Descends on Moscow
The New York Times
Russia's Ukrainian
Minority Under Pressure
Al Jazeera
While the West Watches Crimea, Putin Cleans House in Moscow
The New Republic
Putin Clamps Down: A Chilling Report From Moscow
Rolling Stone
As Putin Rides Wave Of
Popularity, Opposition May
Get Swept Under
The Propaganda War:
Opposition Sings Kremlin
Tune on Ukraine
Putin's New War on "Traitors"
The New Yorker
Putin's Other War [PODCAST]
Putin Moves Against the Press
The New Yorker
56 Journalists Killed
in Russia Since 1992
Committee to Protect Journalists
Putin Is Cracking Down on Media Exactly When We're Desperate
for Answers
The New Republic
Russia's Independent
Media All But Silenced
Kremlin Quashes Last
Pockets of Media Freedom
World Affairs Journal
A Week Before the Olympics,
the Kremlin is Attacking Russia's
Last Independent TV Channel
The New Republic
Russia's Last Independent TV
Channel Is Fighting For Its Life
The New Republic
Russia's 'Optimistic Channel'
Fighting For Survival
Russia Ends Broadcasts
by Voice of America
'Propaganda' Tool
The Los Angeles Times
Swearing Off Bad Language: Russia Bans Cussing in Films, Books, Music
Russia Quietly Tightens Reins
on Web With 'Bloggers Law'
The Los Angeles Times
The Logic of Russian
Internet Censorship
The Washington Post
Sorry, Snowden: Putin Lied to
You About His Surveillance State
—And Made You a Pawn of It
The Daily Beast
Putin's Political Prisoners
World Affairs Journal
Bolotnaya Defendants
Sentenced To Up To Four Years
Russians Detained For
Holding Up 'Invisible Placards'
The Kremlin's
Rock 'n Roll Revisionism
The Daily Beast
In Russia, Punk-Rock Riot
Girls Rage Against Putin
The 'Pussy Riot' Arrests, And
The Crackdown That Followed
The Politics Of the Pussy
Riot Verdict [PODCAST]
Nadia Tolokno, Member of the
Russian Group Pussy Riot, Visited Kyiv
EuroMaidan PR
Notes From Underground:
Russia's Deep Society
Russia's Navalny Placed Under
House Arrest For Two Months
Lebedev Freed, Forty Political Prisoners Remain
World Affairs Journal
Russia's Most Famous Political Prisoner—Now a Free Man
World Affairs Journal
A Russian Dissident tries
to Build Bridges to Ukraine
Russian Democrats
Offer Support in Ukraine
World Affairs Journal
Russia's Silent Majority
The Other Russia
The Power Horizontal
Net Impact: One Man's Cyber-Crusade Against Russian
The New Yorker
Generation N: How Navalny
Shook Up Politics With His
Army Of Volunteers
With Strong Moscow Showing,
Navalny Moves To New Level
Is Putinism On The Wane?
Fascistoid Russia: Whither
Putin's Brittle Realm?
World Affairs Journal
The Russomaidan
The Bolotnaya Maidan
A Whiter Shade of Envy
The New York Times
Thousands of Russians Protest
Putin's Aggression in Ukraine
World Affairs Journal
Anti-Putin Rally Draws
Crowd in Moscow [VIDEO]
"A federal structure will ensure that Ukraine will not be anti-Russian," said Sergei A. Markov, a Russian political strategist who supports the Kremlin.
"Russian officials have said they envision a system in which regions elect their own leaders and protect their own economic, cultural and religious traditions, including the forging of independent economic ties with Russia.
"But many experts sharply dismiss the Russian plan as a stalking horse intended to undercut Ukrainian independence. 'It is another way to dismantle and subjugate Ukraine', said Lilia Shevtsova, an analyst at the Carnegie Moscow Center. 'It means Moscow could grab and peel off any part of Ukraine at any time.'
"President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia 'wants Ukraine to be, one, absolutely neutral and, two, dependent on Moscow', said Vladimir A. Ryzhkov, an opposition politician. 'If you have a weak central government and strong governors, you can play directly with the governors over the head of Kiev.'
Russia Plotting for Ukrainian Influence, Not Invasion,
Analysts Say
The New York Times
"These areas remain dependent upon Russia for their economic survival and constitute a further hindrance to Russian economic growth. Where China recognizes the necessity of a stable neighborhood, Putin has manufactured a volatile and vulnerable one."
The West Must Not Blame
Itself for Putin's Revanchism
"Mr. Putin's view that the West has lied to Russia and humiliated him on numerous occasions, including its plans for Libya, explain why he will continue to talk—and act—tough on Ukraine even as he takes diplomatic steps toward resolving the crisis, said Samuel Charap, the senior fellow for Russia and Eurasia at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, a research organization in Washington.
" 'They are going to keep the boots on Ukraine's throat until they are 100 percent convinced that they have gotten what they wanted', Mr. Charap said in an interview. 'They believe that if they completely pulled back from the pressure they are applying, tomorrow the West would swoop in and try to steal Ukraine away again.' "
Away From Show of Diplomacy
in Geneva, Putin Puts On a
Show of His Own
The New York Times
"While what Kiev politicians are offering falls short of federalization, some pro-Ukrainian activists fear any decentralization will push the country down a slippery slope that allows Russia to turn the eastern and southern regions into de facto protectorates of the Kremlin. Russia has been insisting on a federal form of government for post-Yanukovych Ukraine that would see the regions control tax-revenue and even pursuing foreign and economic policies different from the federal government.
"Vladimir Ryzhkov, a former Russian State Duma deputy, argues Moscow's strategy is 'to weaken Ukraine's government institutions as much as possible' and to maneuver the circumstances where eastern and southern regions would 'align themselves more with Moscow than with Kiev.'
"Despite the low support for decentralization, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has pushed the federalization argument relentlessly, publicly and in talks with American officials. 'We are convinced that deep constitutional reform is required', he argued in one Russian television interview. 'Frankly speaking, we do not see any other way for sustainable development of the Ukrainian state other than a federal state.'
"...Illarionov says the agitation will continue and estimates that at least 2000 Russian intelligence officials are operating in eastern Ukraine. 'Putin will seek to intimidate, apply pressure and destabilize.' And throw money around. 'Watch out for who is selling Ukraine', he says."
Putin Can Take Ukraine Without
an Invasion, and Probably Will
The Daily Beast
"There are many ways to get to this point. One way is to blackmail, by massing your forces at the border. Another is by having them invade. Another is by making sure the pro-Russian protests never die down, and even turn violent...Yet another is by pursuing a diplomatic route, pushing the U.S., rather than Ukraine itself, to change Ukraine's constitution and make Kiev turn political power over to the country's regions—something that, ironically, Russia has long eschewed at home.
"Invasion, which is on everyone's mind right now, is but one tactic and it is clearly one Putin, a man who likes to keep all options open for as long as possible, hasn't taken off the table just yet. And some observers say there may still be more innovation down the line. 'The Russian government has barely dipped into its array of instruments that might destabilize the government in Ukraine and aggravate the region', says Andrew Weiss, vice president for studies at the Carnegie Endowment and a Russia specialist in the Clinton administration. 'We're just at the beginning of this drama, and it's going to show just how much of a spoiler Russia can be.' "
Putin Doesn't Need to Invade Ukraine to Destabilize It, But
He Just Might Anyway
The New Republic
"So far, the Russian invasion of eastern Ukraine looks nothing like these battles. This war involves not soldiers but local thugs and volunteers, some linked to the ex-president, Viktor Yanukovych, some from criminal gangs, and some who mistakenly think they are fighting for some form of benign local autonomy.
"They are being led not by officers in uniform but by men from Russian military intelligence and special operations forces, some wearing camouflage without insignia, some communicating with 'activists' by telephone. They are supplied with Russian logistics and a few Russian automatic weapons, but not tanks or planes. There is no 'shock and awe' bombing campaign, just systematic, organized attacks on police stations, city councils, airports.
"But in the meantime, the Kremlin may settle for disrupting Ukraine's presidential elections, scheduled for May 25, or for destabilizing Ukraine's shaky provisional government, perhaps forcing an economic crash. The Russians may hope to provoke a civil war, or something that appears to be a civil war, which would then require a Russian 'peacekeeping mission'.
"Many of these tactics are familiar, though we haven't seen them for a long time. In 1945, Soviet secret policemen, given the task of transforming disparate Eastern European nations into communist puppet states, also began by organizing local thugs and volunteers—criminals, war-damaged sociopaths, as well as people who mistakenly believed they were fighting for a form of benign socialism—into paramilitary and secret police forces, exactly like the ones operating in eastern Ukraine. Then as now, they led from the shadows. Then as now, they adjusted their strategy depending on how much resistance they encountered and how much support they received."
Putin's New Kind of War
"That left Putin with one remaining option: terrorism.
"There is overwhelming evidence of Russia's direct and indirect involvement in the violence that rocked several eastern Ukrainian cities on April 12–13. Russian intelligence agents and spetsnaz special forces are directly involved; the weapons and uniforms worn by the terrorists are of Russian origin...and the assaults on government buildings in Slavyansk, Mariupol, Makiivka, Kharkiv, Yenakievo, Druzhkivka, Horlivka, Krasny Lyman, and Kramatorsk were clearly coordinated by Russian intelligence.
"Does the behavior of the pro-Russian forces in eastern Ukraine involve 'premeditated, politically motivated violence perpetrated against non-combatant targets'? Obviously. Does this violence involve 'citizens or the territory of more than one country'? Yes, it does. The violence therefore qualifies as international terrorism [in accordance to section 2656f(d) of title 22 of the United States Code], and its perpetrators are obviously 'terrorist groups'..." Putin's Russia as a State
Sponsor of Terrorism
World Affairs Journal
Council on Foreign Relations
Putin Doesn't Need to Invade Ukraine to Destabilize It, But
He Just Might Anyway
The New Republic
"For Vladimir Putin, mimicking his opponents is a key element to keeping power. At home the Russian president oversees a democracy with sham elections and a loyal parliamentary opposition made up of stuffed shirts. His foreign policy can be best described as 'condemn and copy.' Since 2007, when he assailed U.S. hegemony in a Munich speech, Putin has been raging against the West—and then committing his version of the sins he's just condemned.
"Regime change in Iraq gave Putin the green light to march into Georgia and make President Mikheil Saakashvili fear for his life; the NATO intervention in Kosovo and its eventual recognition as an independent country served as a justification for Russia's annexation of Crimea in March; even the Eurasian Union, which Putin has been trying to force Ukraine to join, is a fake alternative to the European Union, which he envies and disdains.
"Now the Maidan protest, characterized by the Kremlin as a Western-sponsored armed coup, is being crudely imitated in towns across the Donetsk region. 'If the guys on the Maidan could revolt, why can't we?' has been the pro-Russian supporters' motto, which ignores that the Kiev protest began as a grassroots, peaceful demonstration that grew over months and only became violent as a result of escalating police brutality."
Putin the Predictable
"It may not even matter whether or not the rebel groups are continuing to act as Moscow's pawns, since their mere presence is so disruptive for the Kiev government. 'You can't hold elections under conditions like this', Weiss, the Carnegie analyst said. 'And if you do hold them, their outcome is questionable and their legitimacy is challenged.' "
East Ukraine's Rebels
Dig In For The Long Haul
Ukrainian Forces Kill
3 Pro-Russian Demonstrators
The New York Times
Sanctions against Russia for Ukraine Actions Working [...]
"Whoever is backing them, the rebels clearly have some measure of popular support, but how much is hard to estimate. Temirov says that two opinion polls conducted since demonstrations started in the east show a majority in Donbas in favor of staying a part of Ukraine. One survey, conducted by a research organization he works with, found that 66 percent wanted to remain in Ukraine and only 18.6 percent wanted to join Russia..." Ukraine: The Phony War?
The New York Review of Books
A Russian Invasion of East
Ukraine Would Make Crimea
Seem Like a Cinch
"There are by no means large demonstrations like we had during the Euromaidan, where hundreds and thousands of people alone were on the streets of Kyiv. This shows that this is not a grassroots movement.
"There are of course about 10 to 20 percent of the population [in eastern Ukraine] who are separatists—often they are the ethnic Russians, but also Russian-speaking Ukrainians. But that does not represent the majority of the population.
"Surveys indicate that between 60 and 70 percent want a Ukrainian state. This division has been there for the past 20 years—ever since the existence of an independent Ukraine—though it has never led to so much unrest."
'Russia has Organized
the Events in Ukraine'
Europe's Most Dangerous Idea
Centre for Research in the Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities
an Invasion, and Probably Will
The Daily Beast
"Many recent surveys indicate that the convergence on issues of Ukrainian sovereignty and territorial integrity have substantively accelerated following the Crimea invasion. According to a survey by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology, a majority of Ukrainians—in all regions—condemn the deployment of Russian troops in Ukraine (93 percent of people in the west and center held this opinion, 73 percent in the South, and 68 percent in the East)...
"As the surveys clearly illustrate, the Crimean events have encouraged consensus regarding the sovereignty and integrity of Ukraine, and the agreement on its further European integration. Vladimir Putin should be given credit for strengthening Ukraine's national identity—the very existence of which he has so persistently denied."
Despite Pro-Soviet Protests, Majority of Ukrainians Lean
Toward Europe
The New Republic
In Ukraine, Russia Plays
a Weighted Word Game
The New York Times
"A couple of thousand people demonstrated their support for the takeover outside the building. Some demanded a federal Ukraine and some wanted Donbas to become part of Russia. Barricades were built and people told me that if it was okay for pro-Europeans to seize buildings around the Maidan, then it was okay for them to do the same to get their point across too. But who exactly were the people inside the Donetsk building and in another seized building in the town of Luhansk? That remained unclear. A skeptical reporter summed them up as the 'Republic of Random Dudes'...
"If those behind the seizure of the two buildings thought they would inspire large-scale demonstrations that would go on as long as those on the Maidan, they were wrong. On April 11 there were no more than a couple of hundred people milling around..." Ukraine: The Phony War?
The New York Review of Books
Quiet Revolution
The Christian Science Monitor
Donetsk Greets the Ukraine
Crisis With a Shrug
"A student of Political Economy 101 might recognise the developments in Ukraine's east as following the logic of 'concentrated benefits and diffuse costs', whereby a particular group will pull out all stops to achieve its goals, while the majority is too apathetic to take action to counter the active minority because it does not necessarily perceive the outcome as detrimental to its well-being. So, while the majority would prefer to continue carrying Ukrainian passports, they are too disenchanted, after two decades of lawlessness, corruption, kleptocracy by the few and the attendant impoverishment of the many, to make a stand for Ukraine's statehood." Eastern Ukraine: A New Pawn
in Putin's Dangerous Game
Al Jazeera
"The reality is rather different. Only one town in eastern Ukraine—Slovyansk, is truly held by pro-Russian protesters, with roadblocks at several entrances. Its defenders are a mixture of the 'men in green', dozens of well-armed fighters wearing fatigues and balaclavas, teenagers looking for some action and what might be termed the Baboushka Brigade, middle-aged women with flashing gold teeth who decry the Kiev 'junta' and see Vladimir Putin as their savior (and the prospect of Russian ownership as bringing improved pensions)."
Small Numbers, Global Impact
"But Slovyansk has nearly 116,000 residents, according to the United Nations.
"These people mostly remain inside, hoping, they say, for negotiations, restraint or any path that will lead to peace.
" 'It's really 50-50 in the city', said [one] resident, Denis...'On one side there are weapons, and on the other is common sense, which, unfortunately, will not overcome.' "
In Ukrainian City Under
Blockade, Citizens Go to
Ground, and Below
The New York Times
"Inside there may be a couple of hundred pro-Russian protesters at any one time, including the leadership of the Donbass People's Republic. Outside are a similar number—supporters, onlookers, miners in orange helmets who fear that if Ukraine joins the European Union they'll be out of a job because of more stringent health and safety regulations.
"The rest of the city works, worships and worries about the political paralysis that has engulfed Ukraine. Of a city of just under 1 million, a few hundred are involved in political agitation..
"In Mariupol, Kramatorsk, Horlivka and other towns across the Donetsk region where government buildings and police stations have been taken over, there is little sense of momentum in the pro-Russian protests. In Horlivka, a gritty industrial town north of Donetsk, a platoon of the Babushka Brigade stood beneath Lenin's statue outside the sleepy City Hall last week, ready to tell anyone who would listen that all they wanted was a referendum on their future, the chance to be free from the 'fascists' in Kiev."
Small Numbers, Global Impact
"It is as though the Russian media—which is widely watched and read here—has somehow embedded these messages into the heads of people and they have lost the ability to think for themselves. Those who are angry talk as though they were a long persecuted minority, as if they have forgotten that easterners under former president Viktor Yanukovych ran the country until February. Everyone here has been robbed blind by politicians in a system that was as corrupt as can be, but all that seems to be registering right now is a nationalist and hysterical drumbeat from Russia about the new Nazis of Kiev and their NATO masters.
"This is ominously reminiscent of what the Serbian media and other bits of the former Yugoslav media did when Yugoslavia collapsed. Then, Serbs were subjected to endless documentaries about Croatia's wartime fascists, whom they were told were coming back. Now the Russian media says the fascists have returned. And of course, just as there were indeed then some admirers of Croatia's wartime fascists, there are some right-wing nationalists in Ukraine now; the big lie is to give them a significance they simply don't have. Speaking to people in eastern Ukraine makes me recall what Milos Vasic, the great Serbian journalist, used to say in 1991: if the entire mainstream US media were taken over by the Ku Klux Klan it would not take long before Americans too would become crazed."
Ukraine: Hate in Progress
The New York Review of Books
"The illusion of a conflict is crucial for Putin's plan to polarize Ukraine and prevent it from achieving the political stability needed to ward off economic collapse. If a few more pro-Russian regions break off as separatist republics, so much the better. Although the violence in the Donetsk region is very localized, images of icon-carrying villagers blocking Ukrainian troops in armored personnel carriers serve the narrative of a beleaguered Russian population under assault. Kremlin-controlled Russian TV presents a parallel reality where the United States is doing its best to split Ukraine; the Kiev government broke the Geneva agreement to defuse the crisis; and foreign mercenaries are backing up Ukrainian forces in Slovyansk.
"Never mind that the supposed people's uprising in Donetsk is a caricature of the Maidan, which was an explosion of citizens' anger. For a Soviet man and former KGB agent like Putin, the concept of civic activism—ordinary people acting without instructions or payment—is incomprehensible.
"The danger today is that Putin's fake separatist movement could take on a life of its own. The alarming footage on Russian TV of 'Kiev's punitive action against its own people' may force people in eastern Ukraine, who never even considered secession, to take sides..."
Putin the Predictable
"The confused and passive response underscored Kiev's limited options in challenging pro-Russian militants and their backers in Moscow. Too assertive a response could cause heavy civilian casualties and play into Moscow's narrative that Russians and Russian speakers in Ukraine are threatened and need protection. Too timid a response risks inviting more meddling from Moscow or giving free rein to local armed militants."
Ukraine Falters in Drive
to Curb Unrest in East
The New York Times
"As it turned out, these statements, amplified to the power of a million by Twitter, were all exaggerated. Ukrainian troops had flown into the decrepit and apparently empty base by helicopter. There had been some ugly jostling with locals, resulting, said an old lady, in three of them being 'grazed'...
"The next day two columns of the government's armored vehicles were finally sent into action. By nightfall, it was clear that, thus far at least, the Ukrainian advance was in tatters. In Pcholkino, near Kramatorsk, one column had been held up by locals and armed militiamen. The soldiers could have opened fire on the crowds but didn't. They sweltered in the sun on the tops of their vehicles. Locals chatted with them and brought them food. A tall and forceful local priest, called Igor, moved between vehicles lecturing the soldiers: 'Why didn't you refuse to take part', he asked them, 'and say "I will not shoot?" ' A few hours later the soldiers were allowed to leave with their vehicles.
"In Sloviansk, the soldiers of the other convoy of armored vehicles were subjected to much worse humiliation. After being stopped on the road outside the town by locals and militia, they were brought into the center. There some forty of them spent most of the day under armed guard before being put on buses and sent home. 'We have not defected', one told me..." Ukraine: The Phony War?
The New York Review of Books
to Take Back East Ukraine
The Daily Beast
Kiev's Old Bosses Are
Sabotaging the New Ukraine
The Daily Beast
" 'Political corruption is ingrained in eastern Ukrainian political culture', the Jamestown Foundation, a Washington-based think tank, noted in a 2012 study.
"The three regions most notorious for the closest relationships between gangsters, oligarchs and politicians—Crimea, Donetsk and Odessa—were the most resistant to the Euro-Maidan revolution that led last month to the ouster of Yanukovych. And now all three regions are at the forefront of the pro-Russian fight-back against the new national leaders in Kiev.
"Taras Kuzio, a research associate at the Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies at the University of Alberta, who wrote the Jamestown report, says the internal political turmoil in Ukraine should be viewed through the lens of the hand-in-glove relationships between politicians, mobsters and the so-called 'red directors', managers-turned-businessmen who are steeped in the ways of Soviet-style public sector corruption and deal-making.
"The symbiosis of politics, organized crime and unscrupulous biznesmeni developed quickly in Ukraine after the collapse of the Soviet Union in much the same way as it did in Russia. The ambitious, the greedy and the powerful lunged for the huge profits that could be made. The state was disintegrating. The big industries—energy, mining and metals—were being privatized, and may the most ruthless man win. 'Individuals such as Yanukovych, Aksyonov and their Donetsk and Crimean allies literally fought their way to the top', says Kuzio. In Donetsk, Yanukovych as governor 'integrated former and existing organized criminal leaders into his Party of Regions', says Kuzio." The Mafia Ruling Ukraine's Mobs
The Daily Beast
"Educated, middle-class people tend to support a united Ukraine, even though practically 100 percent of them are Russian-speakers. Supporters of separatism are largely comprised of pensioners and state employees craving for paternalist social state, like the Soviet Union. They are mixed with members of local criminal gangs and employees of law-enforcement agencies, which in a highly criminalised region like Donbass is largely the same social group.
"Apart from being deeply flawed, the ethno-political discourse [—Russian ethnics vs. Ukrainian ethnics—] diverts people's attention from the root of the problem. The essence of the battle under way in Ukraine, as well as in Russia and other former Soviet countries, is best described by arguably the most popular (and definitely the shortest) slogan of the Ukrainian pro-democracy movement. It goes 'Bandu get!', which means 'Down with the gang!'. By the 'gang' people mean the extremely corrupt regime, linked to organised crime and backed by a cruel repressive apparatus that benefits from looting businesses and robbing individuals—a mafia state. Different versions of such authoritarian kleptocracy are now in control of all of the ex-USSR countries, except Baltic states and arguably Georgia.
"In Ukraine, the popularity of this slogan spans across the traditional ethno-linguistic divide between the Ukrainian-speaking West and the Russophone Southeast. Euromaidan protest that started last November and resulted in the ousting of President Viktor Yanukovich united both Ukranian - and Russian-speakers. Similarly at Moscow's Bolotnaya Square protests in 2012, the same anti-corruption and pro-democracy slogans united people across the political spectrum—from the extreme left to liberals to the extreme right.
"Yet in Ukraine, the divisive ultra-nationalist component was constantly getting in the way, distracting people from the real agenda and alienating sceptics in Russophone regions. It was also fuelling the aggressive Russian state propaganda, which is itself characterised by extreme nationalism and toxic xenophobia, by far exceeding the Ukrainian rhetoric on this front. As a result even the pro-democracy movement in Russia is divided over Ukraine—many Russian liberals are either buying the propaganda argument about 'Ukrainian fascism' or their own nationalism prevents them from understanding and supporting the Ukrainians.
"The ethnicisation of the Ukrainian conflict suits the Kremlin. Its worst nightmare is a Ukraine growing into an alternative Russia—a better place for talented and entrepreneurial Russians to live and work than Russia proper. Or even worse—a united pro-democracy front rising against the mafia state in all of the former Soviet republics, with Ukraine in the lead." Ukraine vs Russia: A
Mafia State's Cover-Up?
Al Jazeera
"In Kramatorsk, the police chief was kidnapped and the deputy mayor is languishing in hospital reportedly after being beaten up by pro-Russian militants for refusing to go along with a takeover last weekend of the town's municipal building. There have been other reports of abductions across eastern Ukraine.
"The most egregious separatist violence came early last week when the tortured bodies of Volodymyr Rybak, a local pro-Kiev politician, turned up along with the corpse of an unknown man. Ukrainian authorities blame Ponomaryov and Russian military intelligence officers they name as Ihor Strielkov and Ihor Bezlier for the murders. Ukrainian SBU officials say the Russians decided to kill the politician after he tried to raise the national flag on the municipal building in the town of Horlivska and he was transported to Slovyansk, they claim, where he was tortured and Ponomaryov was ordered to dump the body.
"On Saturday Ponomaryov's people picked up three men they say are members of the Ukrainian intelligence service, the SBU. The agents reportedly were trying to investigate the Rybak murder. The three were presented to the press on Sunday morning blindfolded, manacled to chairs and showing signs of severe beatings." Reality Check in Ukraine
The Daily Beast
"According to media reports, Slovyansk resident Artem Deynega was abducted on 13 April by unidentified people after he was seen filming from a balcony across the street from the SBU building. Three days later, Ukrainian journalist Serhiy Lefter was similarly taken captive while reporting in the city. Their whereabouts remain unknown.
"On 18 April, Nelya Shtepa, the elected Mayor of Slovyansk, disappeared after attempting to meet with Vyacheslav Ponomorev. It is believed she remains in captivity after an appearance on 22 April on LifeNews, a pro-Kremlin television station in Russia.
"Meanwhile, a Slovyansk police chief, Oleg Prokhorov, has been missing since 19 April. His whereabouts are unknown and it is believed he is also being held by the armed group.
"On 20 April, Irma Krat, a former leader of the EuroMaydan protests in Kyiv and editor of Ukraine's Hidden Truth TV, was abducted after travelling to Slovyansk to cover the recent events. Her lawyer believes she is being held in the SBU, which remains under the control of the pro-Russian armed group. It has accused her of involvement in the alleged torture and killing of a Berkut riot police officer several months ago amid protests in Kyiv, charges she has denied.
"A day after Irma Krat's abduction, the pro-Russian armed group called a news conference where she was paraded in front of national and international media. Journalists were then prevented from leaving the briefing, and at least one foreign reporter was subsequently abducted." Ukraine: Abducted Journalists
and Officials Must Be Released
Amnesty International
" 'People are beaten and then "disciplined" ', he said. 'They are forbidden to use the word "Ukraine", to speak Ukrainian, they are told this is now Russia...' " In Eastern Ukraine,
Torture Is New Weapon
"On May 4, 2014, anti-Kiev forces abducted six men, three of them town council members, from the town of Novogradovka. They were released the following day. All had been severely beaten, and some were seriously injured.
"Human Rights Watch also documented the abduction on May 1 of Artem Popyk and on April 29 of Yaroslav Malanchuk, members of the local election commission in Konstantinovka. Their fate and whereabouts remain unknown.
"On May 4, a large group of armed men abducted six residents of Novogradovka, 40 kilometers northwest of Donetsk: Aleksandr Vovk and Aleksandr Gurov, members of the Independent Trade Union of Ukrainian Miners; Konstantin Museiko, Valeriy Pavlik, and Oleg Bubich, members of the Novogradovka town council; and one other man." Ukraine: Captives
Describe Brutal Beatings
Human Rights Watch
"During the celebration of the Victory Day, Ponomaryov said that from now on his militants would 'mercilessly kill' Ukrainian soldiers, shedding what he said had been a tacit agreement to not to shoot to kill them. 'There will be no talks anymore. The harsher we will treat them, the sooner they start to respect us', he said.
"By the Kyiv Post's count, at least 19 people are still being held hostages by the Kremlin-backed insurgents in the eastern Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts, out of at least 92 persons captured since April 13."
Donetsk People's Republic Separatists Mark Victory Day Weekend with New Round of Killings, Abductions
Kyiv Post
" 'People want the referendum', he said. 'And it's not just a few people; it's millions of people who want the referendum, who need to give this vote for their ideals.'
"But according to a new poll by the Pew Global Attitudes Project, a vast majority of those living in Ukraine—both in the restive east and more nationalist west—want the country's borders to remain the same, despite the many political and social tensions that have come to the surface in recent months.
"Only 18 percent of those surveyed in eastern Ukraine think the country's regions should be allowed to secede—a statistic that serves as something of a rebuke to Pushilin and his fellow separatists..."
New Poll Shows Eastern
Ukraine's Separatists are Wrong
The Washington Post
"As rumors spread about fixed results, election officials were nonchalant about the potential for fraud in such hastily organized conditions. In Slovyansk, anyone with proof of residence elsewhere in the Donetsk region could fill out a brief form and receive a ballot.
" 'We watch who is coming, and see that they're normal people who wouldn't vote again elsewhere', said Vitaly A. Vyadkin, chairman of polling site No. 141200 in the Lenin Palace of Culture in Slovyansk. 'Although in principle, it's possible.' " Steady Turnout of Early
Voters in Eastern Ukraine
The New York Times
Voting Is Plain To See
"There also seemed to be no system in place to prevent one person from voting at multiple polling stations.
"A CNN crew saw several people vote twice at one polling station, where the ballot boxes were decorated with new Donetsk independence flags.
"There was also a report of video showing three men arrested near Slovyansk with boxes of 'yes' ballots in their car." Pro-Russian Separatist Denies Double Voting and Ballot Fraud
in Controversial Referendum
Separation Held in Chaos
"The U.N. report...cited a 'wave of abductions and unlawful detentions' of journalists, activists, politicians, representatives of international bodies and members of the military.
"The report said the U.N. monitors were trying to verify reports of abuses by Ukrainian government forces, and said it had credible reports of people being detained by the army in a way that amounted to forced disappearances.
"In Berlin, German Chancellor Angela Merkel's spokesman Steffen Seibert said the [concurrent] OSCE report did not support Russia's contention that the rights of Ukraine's Russian minority were being violated.
" 'There is atmosphere of intimidation and discrimination, many people in Ukraine are suffering potentially life-threatening legal problems if they don't take up Russian citizenship', Seibert told a news conference.
"Gianni Magazzeni, head of the U.N. human rights office's Americas, Europe and Central Asia branch, said there was no evidence to justify concern for Russian-speaking people in Ukraine and the U.N. report aimed to show where the major human rights concerns were, which was mainly in areas under the power of armed groups in the east of the country.
"Referring to Crimea, the U.N. monitors expressed concern about the treatment of journalists, sexual, religious and ethnic minorities, AIDS patients and citizens who had not applied for Russian citizenship, who faced harassment and intimidation.
"The report was the second by the UN monitoring mission. The first, released on April 15, found ethnic Russians in eastern Ukraine had falsely claimed to be under assault to justify Russian intervention." U.N. Monitors Warn on Human Rights in East Ukraine, Crimea
"On 7 May 2014 the website of Oleg Lyashko, a controversial politician, member of the Ukrainian parliament and presidential candidate, published a report and video footage of the interrogation and ill-treatment of two individuals inside a car, reportedly at an airfield near Mariupol. The two male captives are seen with their hands tied behind their backs. They initially appear with their heads wrapped in some kind of cloth until the interrogator, evidently the politician himself, orders their faces to be uncovered and the cloths are cut off by someone with a knife.One of the men introduces himself as Igor Khakmizyanov, former minister of defence of the self-styled People's Republic of Donetsk. He is sat almost totally naked, with two distinct bleeding cuts on his body. The other man is fully dressed.
"From what the men say during their interrogation it transpires that Igor Khakmizyanov was captured the previous day, possibly in a skirmish involving firearms. The other man was captured near a police station, while noting number plates of passing vehicles..." Ill-Treatment of Captives
Amidst Civil Unrest
Amnesty International
"On 25 April, local television reporter for ZIK, Yuri Leliavski, was imprisoned in a basement for two weeks in Sloviansk, East Ukraine.
"On 26 April, Lutsk-based journalist Sergei Shapoval of news website Volyn Post was kidnapped. Separatists held Shapoval captive, along with other journalists, in an unmarked building in Donetsk, East Ukraine.
"After Shapoval endured three weeks of brutality and imprisonment, he gained his freedom when his captors traded him to a powerful pro-Russian politician. On May 11, masked men forced their way into the home of journalist Alexander Yaroshenko, where they beat him and subsequently burned down his house in the Odessa region of Ukraine. Their experiences have left them all so traumatised, they are reluctant to speak openly." A Journalist Goes Missing Nearly Every Day in Ukraine
The Independent
" 'They wanted to scare people', said Alexander Bespyorstov, a reporter, finishing what appeared to be his last piece at a friend's apartment in the late afternoon. 'We wrote about what was really happening, and I think they didn't like it.' " Separatists Attack a Border Guard Headquarters in Eastern Ukraine
The New York Times
Eastern Ukraine
The New Yorker
"...The biggest obstacle to walking back from the abyss is chaos. It has become a fact of life in many parts of eastern and southern Ukraine that nobody knows who is in charge, and nobody seems to be in charge. Already, violence in southern and eastern Ukraine has taken well over 100 lives from all sides—pro-Russian, pro-Ukrainian, as well as those who were simply fed up with it all.
"The revolution in Kyiv and the resulting power vacuum have created opportunities for a multitude of non-state actors to assert themselves in a region notorious for organized crime, oligarchs and corrupt officials...." The Unraveling of Ukraine
Militants Won the East
The New York Times
Putin Steals the CIA's Playbook
on Anti-Soviet Covert Operations
The Washington Post
"In sum, the strategic first step has to be to help Ukrainians help themselves to make the western part of their state viable and attractive to all inhabitants of Ukraine." The Unhappy Truth About Ukraine
The Daily Beast
"Ukraine's acting President Olexander Turchynov said the turnout for the referendum was much lower than the figure of 75% claimed by the rebels.
" 'According to the Interior Ministry... about 24% of people eligible to vote took part in the so-called referendum the Luhansk Region and slightly over 32% in the Donetsk Region', he said." East Ukraine Separatists
Seek Union with Russia
"However, this majority—which has largely remained silent in the face of the separatist violence—is far from happy with the status quo. Many want a new power-sharing arrangement with Kyiv to give local people a greater say in managing their own affairs, analysts say.
"Ukraine specialist Orisya Lutsevych of London-based Chatham House says people in the east are fed up with the highly centralized nature of the state, where all local tax revenue goes to Kyiv before any is channeled back home.
" 'These grievances in Donbas are very similar to the ones across Ukraine at large', Lutsevych says. 'People are suffering from mismanagement, corruption, and lack of economic opportunities.'
"The distrust is not about people in the east believing that their interests are only served when someone from their region holds power in Kyiv. Ukraine's worst corruption to date is widely believed to have taken place under deposed President Viktor Yanukovych, himself from the Donbas region, and it spared no one. "But Russian-leaning eastern Ukrainians do feel left out by the recent Euromaidan revolution in Kyiv, which was heavily supported by European-leaning western Ukraine. The trick for Poroshenko will be to assure them now that their voices will also be heard." What Are Eastern Ukraine's (Legitimate) Grievances
With Kyiv?
"That sense of regional injustice dates back to the days when eastern Ukraine was an industrial powerhouse of the Soviet Union but saw its earnings go to Moscow. Today, it is the site of Ukraine's major mining, steel, and defense industries and residents widely feel Kyiv has simply taken the place of the Soviet capital.
"The argument is regularly fueled by pro-Russian and Russian media—but is specious. It ignores the fact that Donetsk and Luhansk are the two most heavily subsidized regions in the country after Kyiv itself.
"According to Ukrainian government figures, for example, in the first half of 2013, Donetsk received 9.25 billion hryvnyas ($762 million) more in subsidies than it contributed to the national budget and Luhansk received 5.07 billion hryvnyas ($418 million) more than it contributed.
" 'In terms of the perceptions that are trying to be created, that Donbas is really working for the whole of Ukraine, that is really not the case', the Ukrainian Institute's [Andy] Hunder says..." What Are Eastern Ukraine's (Legitimate) Grievances
With Kyiv?
" 'The consequences of the conflict for the local economy have been disastrous. We're looking at a 30 percent decline in output from last year', said Yuriy Makogon, an economist at the University of Donetsk.
"The areas of Donetsk and Lugansk, in the middle of the coal-producing Donbas region, declared independence last month and cut ties with the central government in Kiev.
"Since then, the region of six million people, Ukraine's industrial heartland accounting for one fifth of the country's total gross domestic product, has slipped into lawlessness.
"The two largest companies, chemical heavyweights Stirol and Severodonetsk Azot, halted their operations in early May, citing the ongoing hostilities between pro-Russian rebels and Ukrainian forces.
"One of the nation's largest shale gas projects, with an investment of over $10 billion (7.3 billion euro), has stalled.
"The project's operator, Anglo-Dutch corporation Shell, insists that it is still on track, but Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk has acknowledged it is in trouble.
"The reason: A crucial portion of the deposits are located in Slavyansk, a rebel stronghold surrounded by Ukrainian forces and the scene of daily combat.
"Several mines have also been forced to close down, causing a year-on-year drop in coal production of 10 percent in recent weeks.
" 'If the 'People's Republics' of Donetsk and Lugansk are not recognised by the international community, we cannot export our products abroad', said Makogon, the economist.
" 'Currently we only export 30 percent of our production to Russia. Russia won't be able to buy everything we produce.'
"Despite their riches, the separatist regions have been net loss makers for the government in Kiev.
"Official Ukrainian statistics show that Donetsk receives three times as much money as it pays back to Ukraine. Lugansk receives twice as much.
" 'The regions in the east can't survive on their own, without help from Kiev', an economic expert said in Donetsk, asking to remain anonymous.
"...[V]ery few of the mines are profitable and the metallurgic industry has been losing money since 2009 because of the global economic crisis.
" 'The state is holding up that sector because of its social importance.' " Ukraine's Separatist Regions
Face A Bleak Economic Future
Business Insider
With Kyiv?
"Thus do the tiny group of nationalists in Ukraine, whom perhaps we can now agree to call patriots, represent the country's only hope of escaping apathy, rapacious corruption, and, eventually, dismemberment.
"And this should be no surprise: In the nineteenth century, no sensible freedom fighter would have imagined it possible to create a modern state, let alone a democracy, without some kind of nationalist movement behind it. Only people who feel some kind of allegiance to their society—people who celebrate their national language, literature, and history, people who sing national songs and repeat national legends—are going to work on that society's behalf. This goes for Russians, too, though tragically they insist on looking to their imperial traditions as a source of national pride, instead of to their liberal leaders in the early twentieth century or to their outstanding Soviet-era dissidents, the founders of the modern human rights movement." Nationalism Is Exactly
What Ukraine Needs
The New Republic
"The organization counts scientists, journalists, lawyers, laborers, and businessmen among its members and supporters. No one is paid; money for food and supplies is raised via internet crowd-sourcing or old-fashioned donation collection tins....
"...The men spend most of their time maintaining check points, patrolling the city, and protecting marches and other public events, like the May 2 soccer game, that have the potential for spiraling out of control. Demonstrating this political neutralism, they provided muscle at recent local campaign events for both Petro Poroshenko and Yulia Tymoshenko, rival presidential candidates. 'Regardless of who becomes president we want to protect Odessa', Otash says. Besides, 'People have no faith in the police. We took responsibility among ourselves.'
"Brighter Future...is interested mainly in 'keeping the peace, and protecting people regardless of their political agenda', Otash says. They talk of battling corruption, fixing the justice system, and establishing programs to protect ecology, children's welfare, the elderly and disabled. They are, essentially, founding the civil society that Ukraine has never really had." Ukraine's Vigilante
The Daily Beast
"By late Thursday, miners and steelworkers had deployed in at least five cities, including the regional capital, Donetsk, though they had not yet become the dominant force there that they are in Mariupol, the region's second largest city and the site just last week of bloody confrontations between Ukrainian troops and pro-Russian militants,.
"The workers are employees of Rinat Akhmetov, Ukraine's richest man and a recent convert to the side of Ukrainian unity, who on [Wednesday, May 14th] issued a statement rejecting the separatist cause of the self-styled Donetsk People's Republic but endorsing greater local autonomy. His decision to throw his weight fully behind the interim government in Kiev could inflict a body blow to the separatists, already reeling from Russian President Vladimir V. Putin's withdrawal of full-throated support last week.
"Wearing only their protective clothing and hard-hats, the workers said they were 'outside politics' and just trying to establish order. Faced with waves of steelworkers joined by the police, the pro-Russian protesters have melted away, as has any sign of the Donetsk People's Republic or its representatives. Backhoes and dump trucks from the steelworkers' factory dismantled all the barricades that had been erected." Workers Take to Streets to
Calm Tense Ukrainian City
The New York Times
"Multi-billionaire Rinat Akhmetov's miners and metalworkers joined police on patrol on Mariupol...cleared barricades of tires and pallets with diggers and heavy loaders and swept the debris from the gutted City Hall, ending the turmoil unleashed by the armed takeover of much of the region.
"The city seemed to return to normal; traffic flowed and the men in masks driven out by the army...stayed away as police teamed up with the unarmed workmen of Metinvest, the most powerful company in the industrialized east.
"...[T]he prospect of the Donetsk region joining the likes of Moldova's Transdniestria or Georgia's Abkhazia as largely unrecognized statelets, operating in a legal and diplomatic limbo, can hardly sit well with a business empire built on exports.
" 'No one wants the Donetsk region to become some kind of grey zone unrecognized by the world. That would be very painful for us', said Yuriy Zinchenko, general director of Mariupol's Ilyich Iron and Steel Works, part of Metinvest, majority-owned by Akhmetov's System Capital Management.
"Metinvest said its patrols with police would be expanded to other towns where the company has operations. It has urged the army to stay out." Fortune Threatened, Ukraine's Richest Man Joins the Fray
"But it is not the kind of calm which comes from government forces clearly defeating separatists—or vice-versa—and then restoring order.
"Instead, it is the kind of limbo that develops when nobody has won and the city turns into a gray zone where fearful residents walk the streets by day and criminal gangs rule the streets at night.
"The city is lawless at night because it is awash in guns after two weapons stores were robbed between May 9 and 10 and there were attempts to break into two others, she adds. Plus there are the unknown quantities of arms that were brought in by separatists over the past months for their failed bid to take over the city.
"With the city too dangerous to patrol at night, police and city officials have focused on what is possible: stabilizing it by day.
"Earlier this week, they and representatives of several plants and factories, plus separatist from the self-declared Donetsk People's Republic, signed an Agreement on Non-Aggression. All parties to the local pact on May 15 agreed to preserve stability, to hand in illegal weapons or at least not to use them, and to help restore buildings damaged in the fighting.
"Key participants in the deal are local miners and metalworkers from Metinvest, the biggest company in the industrialized east and which belong to Ukraine's richest man, Rinat Ahmetov.
"The unarmed workers join police on daylight patrols to crack down on looting in the city center and have helped remove remaining separatist barricades.
"But Romanenko says the workers, whose presence is widely welcomed by citizens, are not the only ones patrolling with the police under the accord. So are unarmed separatists, who often hide their identities with balaclavas.
"The presence of the separatists adds to the sense that nobody is fully in charge or knows what comes next, she says." Gray Zone: Mariupol
Sinks Into Power Vacuum
"Akhmetov's sudden description of separatists as 'bandits and looters' is in full keeping with concerns expressed in Kyiv, which feared Ukraine was preparing to lose its eastern flank to Russia, and had staged numerous 'antiterrorist operations' in an effort to prevent it.
"But the sentiment was somewhat surprising coming from a man who is widely believed to have been one of the separatists' primary funders. Pavel Gubarev, the self-styled governor of the 'people's republic', asserted that Akhmetov, whose personal fortune is estimated at $11 billion, provided up to two-thirds of the movement's operational funds. (Akhmetov denied the claim.)
"Ivan Lozowy, a Kyiv-based political analyst, says it is 'impossible' that a figure like Akhmetov—who enjoys near-complete authority over law enforcement, local government, and the entire working population in the Donbas region—would allow any activity on his territory, separatist or otherwise, that he did not personally profit from. He says Akhmetov—together with Oleksandr Yefremov, a Party of Regions bigwig in neighboring Luhansk, a region with its own separatist movement—have used the threat of breakaway territories to prevent the new guard in Kyiv from undermining their king-like status in the east.
" 'Because they fear for their livelihood following a mass uprising and revolution which overthrew the ruling elite, these local satraps or chieftains try to carve out a territory for themselves, so separatism was part of their agenda', Lozowy says. 'Now that the separatist movement is faltering very seriously and is, I believe, headed for collapse, Akhmetov has simply come out and quickly changed sides, and announced that he's against the separatists. "What are these people doing here?"' " Akhmetov Is Shocked, Shocked
To Find That Separatism Is
Going On In Donetsk!
"Co-funded and organized under Igor Kolomoisky, one of Ukraine's richest men, they play a more assertive role than the unarmed miners and metalworkers working for another oligarch, Rinat Akhmetov, who more recently spoke against the rebels.
"Kolomoisky, appointed governor of the eastern region of Dnipropetrovsk in March, has spent tens of millions of dollars, an aide said, to prevent his territory falling, like the regions of Donetsk and Luhansk further to the east, into separatist hands and being proclaimed autonomous 'people's republics'.
"Among Ukraine's five richest men, the 51-year-old has put a $10,000 bounty on the head of any Russian 'saboteur' and has bought up weapons from people to help pacify the region.
"With Kiev's blessing, he is now seeking to expand his influence with an offensive to win back ground in the two neighboring regions, where the separatists have seized strategic public buildings and called for union with Russia.
"His forces are already patrolling four western districts of the Donetsk region where he helped install pro-Ukrainian locals in governing roles and three more districts are expected to follow, according to his aides.
"Our goal is to knit the country back together," said [Kolomoisky's deputy Borys Filatov]...after a meeting with voters in the Dnipropetrovsk region that represents some 7 percent of Ukraine's population, with 3.3 million people.
"In a sign of the trust Kiev now has in Kolomoisky and his political clout in Ukraine's Russian-speaking south-east, his ally Igor Palitsa was named head of Odessa region and tasked with easing tensions after dozens were killed in clashes in the port city earlier in May.
"Igor Bereza, a commander in Kolomoisky's National Defense Force, said the force now has nearly 15,000 people, including some 2,000 combat-ready troops organized in four battalions.
"The battalions still formally take orders from Ukraine's army and law enforcement bodies but earn about twice as much as the average salary and are better equipped, he said." Kiev Pins Hopes on Oligarch in Battle Against Eastern Separatists
"A win for Mr. Poroshenko would place the country in the hands of a veteran of Ukraine's sordid political arena who has earned a reputation as a deal maker prepared to ally with lawmakers of all stripes. Supporters say that experience gives him the skills to maneuver and execute pressing reforms. Critics say his history signals a return to the same old politics that for years have hobbled Ukraine.
" 'He doesn't have an ideology', said Oleh Rybachuk, a civil activist and former Ukrainian deputy prime minister. 'Does he have managerial capabilities? Yes he does. Does he have political instincts? Yes he does'..." Chocolate Tycoon Vies in Vote to Lead Ukraine Back From Brink
The New York Times
"After weeks of threatening an invasion, Mr. Putin now seems to have closed off the possibility of a Crimea-style land grab in the east, and even issued guarded support for the election to go forward.
" 'You can have a kind of a civil war and this kind of gray zone and be completely separated and face a higher degree of economic sanctions', said Adrian Karatnycky, an expert on Ukraine at the Atlantic Council, describing the choice facing Mr. Putin. 'Or you can see if it's possible to bargain with this new guy, who has businesses in Russia, who has never been known to be a big ultranationalist.' " Front-Runner in Ukraine Election
May Be Shifting Putin's Stance
The New York Times
"In the southeast, in the regions of Donetsk and Luhansk where Russia sent troops and armed local criminals, turnout will be lower. The deft use of pro-Russian militias and television propaganda has led to a breakdown of public order and associated humanitarian crises in some cities in the southeast. The separatists are holding a number of public buildings and control television stations, and disrupt public business by (for example) stealing ballots and pensions. They have some public support, but nowhere near enough to establish a credible alternative to the central government. They can create insecurity but not security. Their only hope to stop elections is intimidation.
"The stakes are high. In February, after weeks of peaceful protests, Ukrainians overthrew an authoritarian president who had illegally altered the constitution, stolen a huge portion of the state budget, criminalized peaceful public demonstrations, and presided over the murder of protesters. After he fled the country, the elected parliament chose a new government, which immediately called for a presidential election on May 25. This is needed to return to the country to political stability and to give all Ukrainians, whether they opposed the revolution or supported it, a chance to be heard.
"Ukrainian elections also mark the eastern boundary of European democracy, which is why they are so threatening for the Putin regime in Moscow. With a regularity that is clearly unwelcome to the Russian leadership, Ukrainians stand up for their rights. The Russian Federation, which unlike Ukraine is not in any meaningful sense a democracy, has questioned the validity of the presidential election. Meanwhile, Russian propaganda quite effectively shrouds the real issues by shunning political discussion in favor of fantastic stories about a fascist takeover in Kiev." Ukraine: The Edge of Democracy
The New York Review of Books
"This is a remarkable reversal. After Russia's flash invasion of Crimea, Mr. Putin had seemed to be on the march. It is believed that, emboldened by the weak Western response and rising popularity at home, he then approved the offensive in eastern Ukraine. He reportedly sent in Russian fighters to support the ethnic Russian minority and Russian speakers in the region, apparently in the hope of triggering a separatist insurgency and eventually splitting up Ukraine—or at least weakening the new non-Moscow-aligned government in Kiev.
"But the effort soon stalled. If Moscow's so-called green men were largely welcomed when they swept into Crimea, its proxy fighters got little assistance from locals when they slipped into eastern Ukraine. In a poll by the Kiev International Institute of Sociology released in late April, at most 30 percent of respondents in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions supported secession from Ukraine, and majorities in both regions opposed it.
"Odessa, Mykolaiv and Kherson—three large Russian-speaking cities in southern Ukraine—are not just quiet these days; polls show that all three are becoming unlikely enclaves of Ukrainian patriotism. In Dnipropetrovsk, where pro-Russian and pro-Ukrainian sentiments have long been evenly divided, opponents of separatism recently marched through streets festooned in blue and yellow, the colors of the Ukrainian state." The Pushback in Ukraine
The New York Times
"If you look at a map you will see that, from a strategic point of view, it would have made, and still makes, sense for the Russians to encourage rebellion, not just in these regions but also in Kharkiv to the north and in a broad swath of territory along the Black Sea coast to the south extending all the way to Odessa, in the southwest corner of the country. In this way a territorial link could have been made with Transnistria, a breakaway region of Moldova that has subsisted as a Russian dependency for more than two decades. If this had happened then Russia would control, either directly or indirectly, all of the north shore of the Black Sea, and would have acquired a land bridge to Crimea, which Moscow annexed in March. Today, apart for crossing through Ukraine, Russians can only get to Crimea by ferry or plane.
"If this was the plan, however, thus far it has gone wrong. Kharkiv did not rise in support of the rebels and neither did many of the other places...
"Certainly Igor Girkin, aka Strelok or 'shooter', the commander of the Donetsk rebel militamen, thinks too many men in the east are spending too much time lounging around on their backsides rather than rallying to the new flag of independence....
"...In a video posted on YouTube on May 17, [Strelok] said he had less than a thousand under arms and demanded to know where were the 'crowds of volunteers' he had expected. Hundreds of thousands of able-bodied men, he moaned, 'are calmly watching TV drinking beer.' " Ukraine's Stalled Rebellion
The New York Review of Books
The New York Times
"Rotting garbage is piling up in the hallways of the government office building seized by separatists in eastern Ukraine. Telephones ripped from the walls are piled atop broken furniture and mounds of old files. The stench of sweat and stale cigarettes is everywhere. The guards, slouching men with pistols shoved in their pockets or flapping loosely in holsters, look increasingly bored.
"It's been six weeks since they took over the building, a week since they declared independence from Ukraine. But the authority of the alleged nation barely extends beyond their ten-story office tower and a few heavily armed checkpoints on roads leading into this industrial city 80 kilometers (50 miles) from the Russian border.
"In the streets of Donetsk, the separatist leaders and their followers are increasingly derided as a collection of heavily armed, barely employed misfits. Outside of the rebels' headquarters, it can be difficult to find anyone who agrees with their calls to secede from Ukraine and link this part of the country—with its generations of ethnic and linguistic ties to Russia—to Moscow.
" 'All this shouting about us being a republic. What kind of a republic is this?' asked Leonid Krivonos, a 75-year-old retired miner, angry that the separatists are refusing to allow Ukraine's upcoming presidential election. 'The young ones still have a future to look forward to, and they risk seeing that all destroyed.' "
"The interim Ukrainian government hopes Sunday's presidential election will unite the country behind a new leader, but separatists across the east have vowed to block the vote.
"Except at their headquarters, the separatists are rarely seen in the city. When they do appear in public, as they did briefly Tuesday, descending from an armored vehicle on a city street to display their weapons and insist they were keeping order, their actions seem more like intimidation than anything else.
"People glance around nervously as they speak of the separatists. Some critics have been beaten.
" 'They can chase you, track you down', said a local businesswoman who asked to be identified only as Angela.
"A Donetsk teacher named Antonina said she and her family received death threats from the separatists because she was on the local election commission preparing for the presidential vote. She said gunmen stormed a meeting and seized all the voting documents.
"Meanwhile, in Slovyansk, a city in the Donetsk region where rebels and Ukrainian troops have been trading gunfire for weeks, an angry crowd of 200 heckled a separatist commander Tuesday, complaining that the rebels were drawing retaliatory fire toward their homes." In Ukraine, Chaos Meets
Self-Declared Independence
"By issuing statements of support, Mr. Putin 'gets to look like a statesman', and blame whatever problems emerge on the new government, Professor Way said. 'He has created a Frankenstein that he cannot control, and may not even want to', he said.
"Many in Ukraine had feared that Mr. Putin sought the eastern regions themselves, and was putting troops in position to potentially seize them in the same way he did Crimea, the southern peninsula on the Black Sea that Russia annexed two months ago, setting off a major international confrontation.
"But a subtler maneuver is now emerging, and many experts believe that the most desirable result for Mr. Putin would be for the troubled areas to devolve into breakaway status, similar to South Ossetia within Georgia and Transnistria within Moldova, a possibility that ordinary citizens are already talking about.
" 'It's a mess, it's anarchy', said Yevgeny Kaplenko, a retired welder, who stood near his small brick house and yard planted with roses near the airport, as gunfire popped. 'This is going to be a second Transnistria. That's what awaits us.'
"That outcome would be considered poisonous by many Ukrainians, and would likely have far more serious repercussions for the world, given Ukraine's enormous size, severe economic problems and geopolitically strategic location in the heart of Europe.
" 'Putin doesn't want to take these regions and foot the bill for all these old industries', Professor Shevel said. 'He would rather there be instability, which makes Ukraine less attractive to Europe and makes it easier to extract concessions from the government.' " Ukraine Forces Appear to Oust Rebels From Airport in East
The New York Times
"Having decided to fight this non-linear conflict largely through local allies, adventurers, deserters and opportunists–albeit encouraged, armed and protected by Moscow–the Russians appear to be coming to realise that this is war on the cheap but also war off the reservation, something they cannot readily control....
"...Now, with the need to deploy forces into Eastern Ukraine which are deniable but at the same time more disciplined and effective than the militias, Moscow seems to have turned to the 'Vostochniki' [Vostok Battalion]. After all, this is just the kind of bandit-war at which they excel.
"This is the irony at work. Moscow's strategy of chaos has worked too well, eating away not just at the cohesion of the rump Ukrainian state but also the emergent East Ukrainians, too. There appears to be increasing evidence of disputes between militias, and between the relatively professional defectors from the Ukrainian security forces, the opportunist thugs, and the 'war tourists' from Russia. Thus, Moscow's hopes to be able to cut a deal with Kyiv—regardless of whether Poroshenko can and will offer the Kremlin what it wants—depends now on bringing order to chaos. The Russians wished for chaos; now they know why so many folk tales warn of being careful what one wishes for..." Is Putin Trying To Regain
Control In Eastern Ukraine?
In Moscow's Shadows
"The disclosure of Russian nationals among the fighters here muddies an already murky picture of the complex connections and allegiances that are beginning to form. While their presence does not draw a straight line to the Kremlin, it raises the possibility of a more subtle Russian game that could keep Ukraine unbalanced for years.
"Many here say the fighters speak to the shadowy nature of a conflict that sometimes seems manufactured. 'It's irritating but not very surprising', said Stanislav Kucherenko, 32, a massage therapist who lives near the airport and woke to the sound of shelling Tuesday. 'It shows that this war is not clean. It is artificially created. If this is an uprising by the Donetsk People's Republic, what are foreigners doing here?' " Russians Revealed
Among Ukraine Fighters
The New York Times
"The surprise move by a group called the Vostok Battalion, a heavily armed rebel unit that has been involved in fighting against the Ukrainian army, sparked speculation about an internal coup within the fractious rebel movement.
"There was also speculation that the move could have been an attempt by the leadership to purge undesirable elements with the Donetsk Peoples' Republic.
"Key rebel leaders, who were not in the building when the fighters arrived, insisted they were still in control and that they had even ordered the operation.
" 'This is a police action directed against looters', a rebel source close to Alexander Borodai, the prime minister of the self-declared republic, said on Thursday afternoon. 'There is no coup. Everything is under control.' " Ukraine's Rebels in Crisis
after Donetsk 'Coup'
The Telegraph
"Methodically and in full view of the news media, soldiers from a well-equipped militia group, the Vostok Battalion, evicted the ragtag band of locals who had occupied the building since taking it over in March, using backhoes and dump trucks to clear away barricades, tires and debris.
"The soldiers claimed that they had come to purge the dark, dank halls of the building, which smelled of alcohol, cigarettes and unwashed bodies, from rebels who had been accused of looting a grocery store near the city's airport during fighting on Monday.
"Yet the bold assault seemed intended more to strengthen the position of Alexander Borodai, a Russian citizen who was also involved in Russia's seizure of Crimea. He denies any connection to the Russian government, though many experts say his activities would be unlikely to continue if the Russian president, Vladimir V. Putin, did not approve.
"Increasingly, a cadre of commanders with Russian citizenship like Mr. Borodai and a shadowy military commander named Igor Strelkov seem to be seizing control of the often rudderless rebellion as clashes with the Ukrainian Army intensify." Pro-Russia Troops Take
Symbol of Ukraine Uprising
The New York Times
"They unexpectedly materialized on May 29 when dozens of heavily armed men identifying themselves as members of the Vostok Battalion stormed the separatists' headquarters in central Donetsk, evicting the motley band of pro-Russian rebels that had occupied the building since March.
"The brazen raid, conducted in broad daylight, has plunged the region into new uncertainty. The emergence of such a widely recognizable Russian military structure in eastern Ukraine has also raised questions about Moscow's role in the conflict.
"So what is the Vostok Battalion and what is it doing in eastern Ukraine?
"The Vostok ('East') Battalion was formed by Chechen warlord Sulim Yamadayev in 1999, at the onset of the second Chechen war.
"Together with his four brothers, Yamadayev defected from the Chechen separatist insurgency in protest at its growing Islamization and rounded up a group of loyal fighters.
"[The newly formed Vostok Battalion] answered directly to the Russian Defense Ministry's main intelligence directorate, the GRU, and was tasked with rooting out Arab jihadists fighting alongside local insurgents.
"In 2008, the unit was dispatched to help pro-Russian separatists from South Ossetia in the Russian-Georgian war.
"It was officially disbanded shortly after the war in what experts believe was a political move to end the scorching rivalry between 'Vostochniki', as the battalion was colloquially known, and members of the 'Kadyrovtsy', the feared militia controlled by Moscow-backed Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov.
"The unit, however, was not truly dissolved.
"'It was never really broken up, it was re-profiled and incorporated into a Defense Ministry unit based in Chechnya', says Ivan Sukhov, a Russian journalist and North Caucasus expert.
"Their raid on the separatists' headquarters...is widely seen as an attempt by a group of Moscow-connected separatists to rid the insurgency of ragtag elements and assert control over eastern Ukraine.
"This group is led by Igor Girkin, who goes by the pseudonym 'Strelkov' and commands the separatists' military operations in Slovyansk, and Aleksandr Borodai, the prime minister of the self-proclaimed 'Donetsk People's Republic'.
"Girkin—who the Kyiv government says is a Russian military intelligence officer—has himself taken a tough stand against indiscipline within rebel ranks, recently ordering the execution of two looters.
" 'I think this represents an attempt to put in a force that is more disciplined but above all that looks to Moscow for orders', [Mark Galeotti, a New York University professor and expert on Russian security affairs, ] adds.
"... while the Vostok fighters seem cut out for the job, with their experience in underground guerrilla operations, their appearance considerably raises the stakes in Ukraine.
" 'The presence of these people in southeastern Ukraine', says Ivan Sukhov, 'is a scandal.' " Vostok Battalion, A Powerful
New Player In Eastern Ukraine
"Chechens, renowned for bloody tenacity and fearlessness during two wars in the southern Russian region over the past two decades, have joined in the battle against Ukrainian armed forces around the Donetsk region.
"While the presence of battle-hardened Chechens may bolster the fight on the battlefield, it's an open question whether they will actually help or hinder the separatist cause.
" 'It kind of undermines the whole theme that this is a local battle', said Michael Bohm, a Moscow-based journalist and an author of a book on Russian psychology. 'For the average grandmother, grandfather, for the average person, who is not particularly in favor of Kyiv but doesn't want to join Russia, they are not going to look very favorably upon this.'
"For older Ukrainians, the arrival of fighters from Chechnya—a region long associated with terrorism—is distasteful at best." Chechens Fighting in Ukraine
Could Erode Support
for Separatists
Voice of America
"It is important for another reason. Its more than 100 miles of squiggly border with Russia have proven remarkably porous in recent weeks, with reports of fighters and supplies crossing into Ukraine with relative ease. The southern portion of the region has a history of contraband. The destitution and joblessness here have driven a lively smuggling business going back years.
"This presents one of the most fundamental problems for Ukraine as it grapples with unrest in its east made worse by fighters from Russia. Protecting a border is one of the most basic elements of a functioning state. Without that protection, Luhansk, or at least parts of it, could devolve into a lawless buffer zone between Russia and Ukraine." At Ukraine's Perilous Border, Law
Is Dispensed by Men in Masks
The New York Times
"But the fact the city this week has witnessed some of the worst fighting in the Ukrainian crisis to date is creating a sense of panic, as residents feel trapped in a situation where neither the government nor the separatists can ensure their safety.
"...[O]rdinary residents [of Luhansk] are still reeling from the explosion that damaged the city's main administration building in the city center on June 2. The explosion at the building, which the separatists use as their headquarters, occurred during the middle of the day in a heavily frequented office and residential district as fighting between separatists and government forces raged on the southern outskirts of the city.
"The separatists accuse the air force of targeting the building, while the government says the explosion was caused by the separatists themselves when they tried to fire a surface-to-air missile from the building at a warplane.
"As the public's fear of being caught in a crossfire now rises, it adds to the feeling of living in a no-man's-land that has characterized Luhansk ever since separatists took over the regional administration building on April 29.
"Since then, the separatists have held sway in the town, as elected authorities, including the mayor and police chief, have left and civic bodies have been intimidated into silence.
"The police, who maintain routine patrols, do not intervene when masked and armed separatists abduct their targets and take them to their headquarters, even in broad daylight.
"The eclipse of the police, who are heavily outgunned by the separatists, has created a surge in crime in the city. The Luhansk department of the Interior Ministry recently told the press that the situation was now out of its control.
"Police sources say the most frequent forms of crime are car theft and hold-ups of cash couriers delivering business receipts to banks. The armed criminals wear masks and camouflage fatigues just like the separatists." Luhansk Dispatch:
Nowhere To Hide
Petition to Russian President
Vladimir Putin: 'We Ethnic
Russians and Russian Speakers
Don't Need Protection'
Kyiv Post
Andrey Kurkov: Why I Stayed
as the Crisis in Ukraine Flared
The Guardian
Ukraine's Far-Right:
Popular or Propaganda?
Al Jazeera
Ukrainian Smears
and Stereotypes
The Washington Post
Crying "Fascist" on Ukraine
The American Interest
'Experts' on Ukraine
World Affairs Journal
Fascism, Russia, and Ukraine
The New York Review of Books
Putin's Fabricated Claim Of
A Fascist Threat In Ukraine
Ukraine's Phantom
Neo-Nazi Menace
The Atlantic
Are Jews in Ukraine
Under Threat?
Tablet Magazine
Who's Really Behind
Ukraine's Synagogue Attacks?
The Daily Beast
Jews in East Ukraine Are Being Threatened, But By Whom?
The Daily Beast
Anti-Semitic Fliers in
Eastern Ukraine Denounced
Demands That Jews Register in Eastern Ukraine Are Denounced,
and Denied
The New York Times
Jewish Community Becomes Unwilling Participant In Ukrainian Political Battle
Ukraine's Chief Rabbi Refutes Putin's Anti-Semitic Charges
World Affairs Journal
Ukraine Chief Rabbi Accuses Russians of Staging Anti-Semitic 'Provocations'
Ukrainian Jewish Committee:
Russian Claims of Anti-Semitism
in Crimea are Lies, Propaganda
The Jerusalem Post
Ukrainian Jews Slam Putin in
Full-Page Ad in The New York Times
The Jerusalem Times
The Head of the Jewish
Community of Ukraine
Speaks Out Against Putin
Among Ukraine's Jews, the Bigger Worry Is Putin, Not Pogroms
The New York Times
Trading Barbs with Putin
World Affairs Journal
Putin Warned of Fascism in Ukraine, But a Look Across Europe Suggests He's to Blame
Tablet Magazine
East Ukraine Crisis
and the 'Fascist' Matrix
Al Jazeera
Putin and the 'Good Hitler'
World Affairs Journal
The Kremlin, Crimea,
And 'The Good Hitler'
Jewish Leaders in Crimea Back Ukrainian Government, Call for
Russian Withdrawal
Ukrainian Jews Join Nationalists
in Protest of President Viktor Yanukovych
The Jewish Daily Forward
Ukraine's EuroMaidan
isn't Just for the Right
The Yale Journal
Kyiv's EuroMaidan is a
Liberationist and not
Extremist Mass Action
of Civic Disobedience
After Yanukovych, Maidan's Next
Fight Will Be To Preserve a
Ukraine Safe for Minorities
Tablet Magazine
Why Are Jews So Afraid
of Stepan Bandera?
Tablet Magazine
Hero Or Villain? Historical Ukrainian Figure Symbolizes Today's Feud
It's Not Russia that
is Destabilising Ukraine
The Guardian
It's Not Russia that's Pushed
Ukraine to the Brink of War
The Guardian
Crimea is like Scotland,
says Russian Ambassador
The Telegraph
'Dear to Our Hearts': The
Crimean Crisis from the
Kremlin's Perspective
Ukraine: The Only Way to Peace
The New York Review of Books
Ukraine's Crisis
A De Facto Partition in Ukraine?
The Nation
Ukraine's IMF Deal
Marx's Last Stand:
Eastern Ukraine
Al Jazeera
Ukraine: New Leaders,
Same Oligarchs
To Understand the Ukranian
Protests, Look to Russia
The New Republic
What are Russia's Real
Motivations in Ukraine? We
Need to Understand Them
The Guardian
How Putin's Domestic Audience Explains Russia's Behavior
The Washington Post
Viewing the Ukraine Crisis
From Russia's Perspective
Ukraine: The Russian
Perspective [VIDEO]
How Russia Sees
Europe [GRAPHIC]
Behind the Russian Rage
Patrick J. Buchanan
Distorting Russia
The Nation
Western Media Coverage of the Ukraine Crisis Is as Distorted as Soviet Propaganda
The Nation
Demonizing Putin Endangers America's Security
The Nation
You say Fascist, I say Nazi
Al Jazeera
Hillary, Hitler & Cold War II
Patrick J. Buchanan
Is Putin the Irrational One?
Patrick J. Buchanan
Russian Senator: West
Always Thinks the Worst of Us
Ukraine, Putin, and the West
Ukraine: Lies, Propaganda
and the West's Agenda
Al Jazeera
Why We Should
Give Putin a Chance
The Wall Street Journal
Getting Ukraine Wrong
The New York Times
The EU's Approach to Ukraine
has been Catastrophic
The Telegraph
A Tortured Policy Toward Russia
The New York Times
Why NATO is Such a
Thorn in Russia's Side
Russia's NATO Fears [VIDEO]
The U.S. has Treated Russia
Like a Loser Since the End
of the Cold War
The Washington Post
Cold War Again:
Who's Responsible?
The Nation
Cold War Against Russia
—Without Debate
The Nation
France's Le Pen, in Moscow, blames EU for new 'Cold War'
Obama to Putin: Do as
I Say Not as I Do
The Chance Putin Has Given
Obama for Diplomacy [VIDEO]
The Nation
After Chaotic Autonomy Votes, Negotiations Could Be Sole Path
to Prevent Ukraine's Disintegration
Democracy Now
The American Who
Dared Make Putin's Case
Kremlin Finds a
Defender in Congress
The New York Times
Is Putin One of Us?
Patrick J. Buchanan
Whose Side Is God on Now?
Patrick J. Buchanan
Who Was in Kiev's
Independence Square?
Who are the
Protesters in Ukraine?
The Washington Post
Fascists, Fascists, Everywhere
Is There a Single Ukraine?
The Economist
Pivot Away From Ukraine
US News and World Report
"The fury of our politicians' and bureaucrats' response to the mass destruction of Soviet idols in Ukraine is revealing. You might think, why pity symbols of the past? But Russian bureaucrats understand that their beloved Homo sovieticus crumbled along with Lenin. 'They are destroying monuments to Lenin because he personifies Russia!' one politician exclaimed. Yes: Soviet Russia and the USSR, the ruthless empire, built by Stalin, that enslaved whole peoples, created a devastating famine in Ukraine, and carried out purges and mass repressions. The recent Ukrainian revolution was indeed directed against the heirs of that empire—Putin and Yanukovych. It is telling that pro-Russian demonstrations in Crimea and eastern parts of Ukraine invariably took place next to statues of Lenin.
"...The Soviet Union may have collapsed geographically and economically, but ideologically it survives [in Russia] in the hearts of millions of Homo sovieticus. The Soviet mentality turned out to be tenacious; it adapted to the wild capitalism of the 1990s and began to mutate in the post-Soviet state. That tenacity is what preserved a pyramidal system of power that goes back as far as Ivan the Terrible and was strengthened by Stalin." Let the Past Collapse on Time!
The New York Review of Books
Stop Romanticizing Russia
"In the 1990s, many people thought Russian progress toward that home simply required new policies: With the right economic reforms, Russians would sooner or later become like us. Others thought that if Russia joined the Council of Europe, and if we turned the G-7 into the G-8, then sooner or later Russia would absorb Western values. Such privileges were never even extended to China, which is a far greater economic and political power. This is because we've never believed that China would be 'Western.' But deep down we believed that Russia would someday join our club.
"...In many European capitals, the Crimean events have been a real jolt. For the first time, many are beginning to understand that the narrative is wrong: Russia is not a flawed Western power. Russia is an anti-Western power with a different, darker vision of global politics..."
A Need to Contain Russia
The Washington Post
"Having been gifted a promising legacy he promptly squandered it by imposing a corrupt and wasteful form of authoritarian governance. Unless he can find new sources of growth and dynamism at time when he is closing down Russian society and cutting it off from the outside world, it is likely to be this second version of history that sticks."
Crisis Reveals Serious
Cracks in Putin's Empire
"The visions that propel Mr. Putin are of himself hanging by his heels from a lamppost or spending the next 20 years in a dock answering for everything from the disappearance of $90 million in food money in St. Petersburg when he was deputy mayor to the 2006 murder of critic Alexander Litvinenko in London."
Forgiving Putin—Again
The Wall Street Journal
Putinism as the Last
Phase of Sovietism
"There is a common delusion among the international community that although Mr. Putin is corrupt, his leadership is necessary because his regime subdues the dark, nationalist forces that otherwise would seize power in Russia. The West should admit that it, too, has underestimated Mr. Putin's malign intent. It is time to end the dangerous delusion that enables him [Alexey Navalny]."
How to Punish Putin
The New York Times
"...[Surkov's] influence over Russian politics is unsurpassed. He is the man behind the concept of 'sovereign democracy', in which democratic institutions are maintained without any democratic freedoms, the man who has turned television into a kitsch Putin-worshipping propaganda machine and launched pro-Kremlin youth groups happy to compare themselves to the Hitler Youth, to beat up foreigners and opposition journalists, and burn 'unpatriotic' books on Red Square...."
"...The novelist Eduard Limonov describes Surkov himself as having 'turned Russia into a wonderful postmodernist theatre, where he experiments with old and new political models'. There's something in this. In contemporary Russia, unlike the old USSR or present-day North Korea, the stage is constantly changing: the country is a dictatorship in the morning, a democracy at lunch, an oligarchy by suppertime, while, backstage, oil companies are expropriated, journalists killed, billions siphoned away. Surkov is at the centre of the show, sponsoring nationalist skinheads one moment, backing human rights groups the next. It's a strategy of power based on keeping any opposition there may be constantly confused, a ceaseless shape-shifting that is unstoppable because it's indefinable."
"This is the world Surkov has created, a world of masks and poses, colourful but empty, with little at its core but power for power's sake and the accumulation of vast wealth..."
Putin's Rasputin
The London Review of Books
"Except that that designation isn't quite accurate either. Authoritarian states are typically ruled by faceless bureaucrats or dour generals. Putin, in contrast, has charisma and he is popular. This factor makes Russia sufficiently different from run-of-the-mill authoritarian states to qualify it as 'fascistoid'—an ugly word indicating that its hybridity quickly shifted from some combination of democracy and authoritarianism in Putin's early years in power to some combination of authoritarianism and fascism today.
"Like authoritarian systems, fascist systems lack meaningful parliaments, judiciaries, parties, and elections; are highly centralized; give pride of place to soldiers and policemen; have a domineering party; restrict freedom of the press, speech, and assembly; and repress the opposition. (Consider in this light the similarities between Pinochet's Chile and Mussolini's Italy.) But unlike authoritarian systems, fascist systems always have supreme leaders enjoying cult-like status, exuding vigor, youthfulness, and manliness. And unlike authoritarians, fascist leaders are charismatic individuals who promote a hyper-nationalist vision that promises the population, and especially the young, a grand and glorious future—usually echoing past national glories—in exchange for their subservience. (Consider the differences between Pinochet and Il Duce.) Unsurprisingly, full-blown fascist systems, being the instruments of charismatic one-man rule, tend to be more violent than average authoritarian states.
" 'Fascistoid' captures nicely the hybridity of the wretched system Putin has created, in which authoritarian institutions serve as a platform for a charismatic leader who is committed to Russian greatness, hyper-nationalism, and neo-imperial revival and who serves as the primary source of regime legitimacy and stability. The term also suggests why the regime is intrinsically weak..."
Fascistoid Russia: Whither
Putin's Brittle Realm?
World Affairs Journal
"During the Cold War, left-wing parties were often viewed with no small amount of suspicion in the West. Fear was rampant, if perhaps overwrought, that they could act as a political beachhead for the Soviet Union and the communist East Bloc in their presumed quest for global domination.
"Times have changed. While relations between Moscow and the West are once again tense due to the ongoing tug-o'-war over Ukraine and the Crimea, it is Europe's right-wing parties that are showing an affinity for Russia. And with European Parliament elections quickly approaching in late May, right-wing populists—with parties in several countries well positioned to make gains in the coming vote—are being increasingly open about their desire to act as an advocate for Moscow in Brussels.
" 'I think we can be a good partner for Russia in the European Parliament', says Filip Dewinter, a senior member of the right-wing Flemish party Vlaams Belang in Belgium. 'And Russia sees us as a potential partner.'
"Russian voices have been no less supportive. 'We hope that the results of the coming elections will give these people more power', says Sergey Markov, a conservative political scientist with close ties to the Kremlin. 'We need to move forward to further develop this cooperation' with the European right.
'A Partner for Russia': Europe's
Far Right Flirts with Moscow
'Progressive' Silence
on Putin's Aggression
Kyiv Post
"Putin is already a cult person for many European far right activists. The Italian National Front applauded Putin for his anti-gay laws and the disruption of the US/European plans to crack down on Bashar al-Assad's regime, Andreas Mölzer of the Freedom Party of Austria hailed Putin as a hero who 'had managed to steer the post-communist, crisis-ridden Russia into calmer waters', Nick Griffin of the British National Party praised Putin's Russia for 'a robust, transparent and properly democratic system', Norwegian extreme right terrorist Anders Breivik wrote of him as 'a fair and resolute leader worthy of respect'..."
Is Putin a New Hitler
(in the Making)?
Anton Shekhovtsov's Blog
Far-Right Forces are Influencing Russia's Actions in Crimea
The New Republic
Is Putin a New Hitler
(in the Making)?
Anton Shekhovtsov's Blog
"The Eurasian ideology draws an entirely different lesson from the twentieth century. Founded around 2001 by the Russian political scientist Aleksandr Dugin, it proposes the realization of National Bolshevism. Rather than rejecting totalitarian ideologies, Eurasianism calls upon politicians of the twenty-first century to draw what is useful from both fascism and Stalinism...Eurasianism is not only the ideological source of the Eurasian Union, it is also the creed of a number of people in the Putin administration, and the moving force of a rather active far-right Russian youth movement. For years Dugin has openly supported the division and colonization of Ukraine."
Fascism, Russia, and Ukraine
The New York Review of Books
Ukrainian Extremists Will Only Triumph if Russia Invades
The New Republic
"Putin's speech took place two days after the Crimean referendum, but it was as much a declaration of the new rules and motifs of Putinism, rich with grievance and triumph, as it was a statement about the disputed peninsula...
"The annexation of Crimea—not the act itself as much as its reverberating effect on Russian politics and society—has consolidated the new operating model for Putin's rule, which had already been taking shape. Ever since Putin returned to the Presidency, in 2012, he has searched for an ideological, even spiritual, underpinning for his grip on power. Disturbed by a protest movement that briefly seemed formidable and a slowing economy, Putin turned to a mishmash of nationalism, conservative values, Russian Orthodoxy, and a fear of the corrupting influence of the degenerate West. If his first decade in power had been justified by a growing economy and improved living standards, then his third term would be justified by the grandeur of historical destiny.
"Crimea marks a capstone to this shift in orientation: a new and harder era, in which isolation and conflict with the West are virtues in and of themselves. Gone is the postmodern carnival defined by people like Vladislav Surkov, a showman and manipulator who helped Putin construct the political culture of the aughts.
"Putin is turning the country away from a time when citizens were expected to be passive and inert, and toward an era when they must be jumpy, mobilized, and ready to defend the state at any cost. The need for enemies is obvious: to rally the patriotic masses for the struggle that lies ahead..."
Putin's New War on "Traitors"
The New Yorker
"Only few people in the West fully realize to what level a national hysteria has been created in Russia proper. Rock musician Makarevich, who dared to take a stance against the occupation of the Crimea, is now a 'people's traitor' and might loose all his awards and prizes as a result. A professor at Moscow University was fired for criticizing the occupation, and the colleague who defended him was dismissed as well. Elena Tkach, a deputy in the Moscow city council, has called upon the authorities to take away Russian citizenship from all 'people's traitors' with the words: 'People who hate Russia are not entitled to be its citizen. Everybody knows that it is time to punish those who have issued anti-Russian statements in the press and internet… [...] Insulting Russia and its people should be completely wiped out…' "
"This is a situation that is worrying and dangerous at the same time. It is also a situation in which the human rights [community] in Russia needs our utmost support..."
Statement for Sub-Committee
on Human Rights of the
European Parliament on
the Situation in Russia
The New Republic
Putin Moves Against the Press
The New Yorker
While the West Watches Crimea, Putin Cleans House in Moscow
The New Republic
"Crimea is a part of a bigger story: Russia is drastically changing course. Once a rather soft autocracy, it's becoming a highly repressive and increasingly totalitarian state with an information firewall as efficient as the Iron Curtain. In a matter of months it will be a different country and only a tiny, extremely non-transparent group of people knows what the design is."
"We know that these people control an arsenal of nukes sufficient to erase the human race. For the sake of our own sanity, we assume that they are completely sane (if sinister) and know exactly what they want to achieve and where to stop. But do we have any proof?"
Putin Is Cracking Down on Media Exactly When We're Desperate
for Answers
The New Republic
"In this view, Western leaders backed Putin into a corner and, with the situation worsening in eastern Ukraine, it is time we gave him an exit plan.
"As tends to be the case with bad neighbors, Russia's belligerence [actually] stems from problems at home. Despite recent high global oil prices, Putin presides over an economy in reverse.
"...Putin has tightened his control over the media and political opposition. But rather than accompanying political tightening with economic reform, his government has side-stepped market-opening commitments made as part of Russia's WTO accession. And rather than tackling ever-deepening corruption, he has continued to hand his close allies the choicest parts of the Russian economy through Kremlin-led corporate mergers and lucrative concessions."
The West Must Not Blame
Itself for Putin's Revanchism
"Russia adopted revanchism...because the man in the Kremlin came to conclusion that the Russian system could not be preserved any other way. Putin understood that the Russian system of personalized power could no longer be reproduced by means of imitating the West and integrating members of the Russian elite personally with the West. For now and the foreseeable future, the West must not be imitated but rejected and contained."
The Putin Doctrine: Myth, Provocation, Blackmail,
or the Real Deal?
The American Interest
Is Putin Next?
World Affairs JOurnal
Eastern Ukraine: A New Pawn in Putin's Dangerous Game
Al Jazeera
Forgiving Putin—Again
The Wall Street Journal
"But he should take time to consider whether the foundations of Russian power are as stable as he would like us to believe.
"As an act of geopolitical assertiveness, the seizure of Crimea was meant to convey a message of strength. But the negative reaction of financial markets and Western sanctions against Russia have highlighted existing economic vulnerabilities in a way that raises serious doubts about Russia's ability to sustain its new position."
Crisis Reveals Serious
Cracks in Putin's Empire
A Borderland on the Edge
"But the Crimea situation is making matters much worse. The World Bank now projects that given a 'limited and short-lived impact of the Crimea crisis', growth could fall to 1.1 percent in 2014. Should things get messier, however, the World Bank warns that Russia's economy could shrink by 1.8 percent in 2014. Russian officials, the designated cheerleaders for Putin, are even more pessimistic. According to Reuters, Andrei Klepach, the deputy economy minister, now says Russia's economy could grow at a rate as low as .5 percent in 2014—perilously close to flatlining..."
Flex Muscle Spending Has Left Putin's Russia in an Economic Freeze Frame
The Daily Beast
"...If the Russian economy suffers over the long term, senior American officials said, then Mr. Putin's implicit compact with the Russian public promising growth for political control could be sundered.
"...[T]he relationship [between Russia and the West in any event] cannot return to normal...even if the Ukraine situation is settled soon, specialists said. 'There's really been a sea change not only here but in much of Europe about Russia', said Robert Nurick, a Russia expert at the Atlantic Council. 'A lot of the old assumptions about what we were doing and where we were going and what was possible are gone, and will stay that way as long as Putin's there.' "
In Cold War Echo, Obama
Strategy Writes Off Putin
The New York Times
"If the choice now is between trying to bring President Putin gradually in from the cold, or containing his worst instincts towards Russia's European neighbors, the latter is the only rational answer."
The West Must Not Blame
Itself for Putin's Revanchism
"But now there has been an attack. The Russian president has broken a series of international treaties, some of which were designed to protect Russia's rights to its naval base in Crimea. In his public statements and actions, that same president has openly revealed his disdain for the West. His state-owned television channels are publishing stories that are verifiably untrue. This is our wake-up call: Western institutions have enabled the existence of a corrupt Russian regime that is destabilizing Europe. It's time to make them stop."
Russia's Western Enablers
The Washington Post
Forgiving Putin—Again
The Wall Street Journal
"Withdraw Europe's support for pipelines Mr. Putin wants to build. These, by way of the Black Sea and the Baltic Sea, aim to reduce Ukraine's leverage as transit path for gas exports that generate much of his regime's income. Mr. Putin might like to shut off the gas but he can't. He needs the money.
"Get moving on the pending U.S. trans-Pacific and trans-Atlantic trade partnerships, which grant member countries automatic approval of U.S. liquefied gas exports. The mere prospect of U.S. exports has already eroded Russia's pricing power.
"Let Exxon and other Western oil firms queuing up to explore Siberia and Russia's Arctic know their efforts are not currently appreciated. A single caustic hearing on Capitol Hill should do it."
Forgiving Putin—Again
The Wall Street Journal
The New Republic
The New York Review of Books
"But these facts alone do not mean that those armed men are simply Russian agents, or even Russian-trained militias. Instead, alongside Russia, the forces of the 'Donetsk People's Republic' and the 'Lugansk People's Republic' serve first and foremost what we call a mafia state.
"The idea itself is not new. It gained currency particularly in reference to Russia in the wake of WikiLeaks, which disclosed the details of a January 2010 briefing by Spanish prosecutor José Grinda González—one of Europe's top experts on organized crime—analyzing Russia as a 'virtual mafia state.' One year later, British journalist Luke Harding published Mafia State, a memoir detailing the intimidation and Cold War spy-game-like scare tactics that he faced at the hands of Russian secret services while he was The Guardian's bureau chief in Moscow, an assignment that ended when Russia denied him re-entry in 2011. In recent months, commentators have increasingly—and rightly—pointed out the need to think about Ukraine not just as a state, but also as the sum of its regions. Here the 'mafia state' idea can help us to understand the events of recent months, especially the perverse phenomenon of the separatist militia-driven 'people's republics' of the Donbas. Even allowing for the distinctiveness of Soviet legal culture, 'rule of law' as such was a myth in the Donbas even before the Soviet collapse. Combine might-trumps-right with the long-standing culture of anomie and graft classically described by Aleksandr Zinoviev as Homo Sovieticus, and you can see that the mafias and 'people's republics' of Donetsk and Luhansk have been decades in the making.
"Writing for The New Republic more than a decade ago, Princeton historian Stephen Kotkin provocatively dubbed much of the post-Soviet space 'Trashcanistan'—'a dreadful checkerboard of parasitic states and statelets, government-led extortion rackets and gangs in power, mass refugee camps, and shadow economies'. Instead of Communist Party nomenklatura calling the shots, a parallel power structure developed in the 1980s and 1990s in the form of a client system of black-market privateers and underworld bosses operating on a dramatic scale.
"Welcome to the Donbas. The violence, political parasitism, and mafia life undergirding the region's present chaos have been present since even before the Soviet Union's dissolution in 1991. This is how the Donbas and its neighboring Dnieper region have produced many of Ukraine's wealthiest magnates and top national politicians, with the former group feeding the latter courtesy of post-Soviet Ukraine's wealthiest citizen, Rinat Akhmetov; its former presidents Viktor Yanukovych and Leonid Kuchma; and even its Orange Revolution prime minister and—until recently—Yanukovych's political prisoner, Yulia Tymoshenko.
"In the first decade of Ukrainian independence, the Donbas had the highest level of criminal activity in all of Ukraine. Between 1990 and 1993, total crime in the Donetsk region increased by 50 percent. In 1991 alone, the Donetsk police department fingered 2,186 criminal groups, which at that time had committed over 4,000 alleged crimes, including 33 murders, 212 robberies, 173 cases of extortion, and so on. Since 1991, the number of organized criminal groups identified by law enforcement agencies has increased steadily." Eastern Ukraine Has Been a Mafia State for Years. Can Kiev Break the Cycle of Violence?
The New Republic
"And it's not like Crimea was exactly gangster-free even before the Russian annexation. A combination of official neglect from Kyiv, hostility between local law enforcement and the central Ukrainian government, and the Black Sea Fleet's role in various smuggling operations combined to make the peninsula a magnet for post-Soviet organized crime.
" 'Crimea's political and economic structures were infamously interconnected with its underworld. Simferopol's Salem and Bashmaki crime gangs of the 1990s ran protection rackets, smuggled drugs, and assassinated each other', Galeotti wrote.
"Indeed, Crimea's Moscow-installed de facto Prime Minister Sergei Aksyonov is widely reported to be a mid-level gangster—known as 'the Goblin'—with the Salem gang.
"And now, major projects like the $5.5 billion Kerch Strait bridge project connecting Crimea to Russia's Krasnodar Krai and plans to build a new casino and resort complex promise to present the most lucrative opportunity for the criminal underworld since, well, since the Sochi Olympics.
"And the Russian authorities seem determined to make sure 'their' anointed gangsters—like Moscow's powerful Solntsevo group—get the largest piece of the action." Gangsters And Fascists And Separatists—Oh My!
"Mr Borodai makes no secret of being a Muscovite. How he suddenly emerged at the helm of a pro-Russian rebellion in Ukraine is unclear. Improbable though it may sound, he has passed from being a consultant to a Russian investment fund to 'prime minister' of a 'People's Republic'.
"But the known facts of his biography make this transformation less mysterious. Mr Borodai was one of a circle of ardent Russian nationalists who worked for the far-right 'Zavtra' newspaper in the 1990s. He took part in the rebellion in Moldova which carved out the enclave of Transdniestria for the country's Russian minority.
"Earlier this year, he was in Crimea as an adviser to Sergei Aksyonov, the separatist prime minister who oversaw the territory's annexation by Russia. So Mr Borodai has long experience of carving out secure enclaves for Russians who found themselves becalmed in former Soviet republics after the collapse of the Soviet Union.
"By his account, he came to Ukraine at the invitation of Igor Strelkov, another Russian citizen now believed to be commanding rebel forces in the town of Slavyansk, 70 miles north of Donetsk..." Ukraine's Forces will be Driven from Donetsk Vows New 'Prime Minister'
The Telegraph
"...Borodai confirmed that he worked in Crimea alongside Igor Girkin, the Russian army colonel who has been leading the secessionists' armed militias. Girkin also turned out recently to live in Moscow.
"The connection that fuels Borodai, and Girkin, may be with a Russian nationalist billionaire named Konstantin Malofeev, according to reports this week by Vedomosti, news website Slon and other Russian media. Borodai has worked for a Malofeev investment firm called Marshall Capital, Vedomosti reported May 19. Girkin is known to be an enthusiast of re-enacting historic military battles in Tsarist period costumes—an activity that he shares with Malofeev, according to Oleg Kashin, the author of the Slon article.
"Is Malofeev the conduit providing the money to run the Donetsk secessionist campaign? That is the allegation of Russian anti-corruption campaigner and lawyer Alexei Navalny." A Ukraine Secessionist from Moscow Builds Greater Russia, One Province at a Time
Atlantic Council
"Back in 1993, he was among those defending hard-liners barricaded inside the Russian White House in their showdown with President Boris Yeltsin. He wrote regularly for the ultranationalist newspaper 'Zavtra' and in 2011 co-founded the 'patriotic' online television channel Den-TV.
"Despite being a Muscovite and a Russian citizen, Borodai last month was named the de facto prime minister of the self-styled 'Donetsk People's Republic', a separatist region in eastern Ukraine. The move transformed him from an obscure nationalist on the fringe of Russian political life to a key figure at ground zero of the biggest standoff between Moscow and the West in decades.
"[As Yevgeny] Kiselyov [—a Kyiv-based political commentator and television anchor who is originally from Russia—put it, ]...the ideas of once-marginal figures like Borodai and Aleksandr Prokhanov, the editor and founder of 'Zavtra', now make up 'the backbone of Russian foreign policy.' " Russia's Nationalist Fringe Takes Center Stage In Eastern Ukraine
"Prokhanov, a fringe figure in the 1990s, has enjoyed a resurgence with the Ukrainian crisis, with his articles appearing regularly in the mass-circulation pro-Kremlin daily 'Izvestia'. Gangsters And Fascists And Separatists—Oh My!
"Pavel Gubarev, the self-styled 'people's governor' of Donetsk, was a member of the ultranationalist group Russian National Unity, whose symbol bears a disturbing resemblance to a swastika.
"The far-right paramilitary organization was founded in 1990 by nationalist leader Aleksandr Barkashov, and its members have been implicated in violent crimes against ethnic minorities and in the 2009 killings of human rights lawyer Stanislav Markelov and journalist Anastasia Baburova." Gangsters And Fascists And Separatists—Oh My!
"Back on May 7, just days before the Donetsk and Luhansk regions held unrecognized independence referendums, Ukraine's security service, the SBU, released what it says was an intercepted phone conversation in which a man they identified as Barkashov explains to separatist leaders how to falsify the results.
"Moreover, Aleksandr Dugin, who in the 1990s preached a Russian nationalism 'borderless and red', spoke in a Skype conversation posted on YouTube with [Pavel] Guberev's wife, Yekaterina, in late March. The two spoke at length about the situation in the east, a week before gunmen seized government buildings.
"Several of the Russian nationalists participating in the unrest in Ukraine have links to [Aleksandr] Prokhanov's newspaper, 'Zavtra'.
"Both Borodai and Igor Girkin, the self-proclaimed 'defense minister' of the Donetsk People's Republic who goes by the moniker 'Strelkov', have been regular contributors.
"Among those contributors are Sergei Aksyonov, the Moscow-installed prime minister in Russian-occupied Crimea.
"Another is Aleksei Khudyakov, the former head of the Russian anti-immigration group Shield Of Moscow. Last year, masked youths from the group raided migrant living quarters in the Russian capital." Russia's Nationalist Fringe Takes Center Stage In Eastern Ukraine
"His appearance and demeanor are very different from the Ukrainian separatist leaders that have emerged since the spring. He is the antithesis of a gangster or revolver-touting thug. He looks like a military officer of an earlier generation, with short hair and clipped mustache, complementing his 'little green man' military fatigues; he is quiet-spoken, calm, and—his extreme political views notwithstanding—highly intelligent. His writing is lucid and the arguments clear. Above all, what may make him unusually dangerous is a clear belief in his mission, which currently is to consolidate his authority in Donetsk and Luhansk, but in the longer term, to remove the Kyiv government from power.
"...[I]t is difficult to dismiss all the evidence provided by the SBU and other sources, of Strelkov taking orders from superiors. It seems unlikely that he is operating with complete independence; and it would be far-fetched to anticipate that an officer with such long military service in world trouble spots would dispense entirely with military hierarchy. Rather, he may be part of the Greater Russian vision that permeates some sections of the Russian establishment, from political scientist Aleksandr Dugin to Vasily Yakemenko, and harkens back to earlier luminaries such as Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. Strelkov appears to live in a different era, but his playing of romantic roles has become confused with political reality. Eventually, this quiet and eccentric fanatic may represent little more than a pawn in a much broader power game, but for the Ukrainian Government he represents a difficult opponent who is unlikely to surrender, with or without support from the Russian military and its Commander-in-Chief." Igor Strelkov—Moscow Agent
or Military Romantic?
Open Democracy
"Are these commanders the backbone of an emerging independent East Ukraine, or are they burgeoning warlords staking out their turf for whatever comes next?
"So far, Kiev's 'anti-terrorist operation' to take back eastern Ukraine has united the rebel leaders in the defense of the self-declared Donetsk and Lugansk 'People's Republics', even though each has his own vision of the region's political future....
"But President Petro Poroshenko's efforts toward de-escalation, including the promise of a cease-fire if rebels agree to lay down their arms, could soon test these commanders' willingness to submit themselves to a greater authority. Their real allegiances—whether to the Russian government, a certain local oligarch, the people's republics, or simply themselves—remain unclear.
"These days, eastern Ukraine's countryside is largely a lawless territory dotted with checkpoints run by pro-Russian rebels and Ukrainian government forces, while the cities have retained a sense of order. But all three Donetsk militia commanders told me that criminality is on the rise.
"Although Poroshenko has pledged amnesty for rebels who agree to lay down their arms, he specifically excluded those who have committed grievous crimes. Given that Borodai and Pushilin were slapped last week with charges of terrorism and attempting to overthrow the government, militia leaders can more likely expect prosecution than amnesty if Kiev retakes the east. Their actions have also divided the local populace, a majority of which opposes the rebels' tactics. If the stalemate continues or if eastern Ukraine successfully separates from the rest of the country, will these men eventually relinquish their power and risk their personal safety? Or will they begin fighting among themselves?" Fight Club, Donetsk
Foreign Policy
" 'They'd need heavy weapons to dislodge us and they can't use them without civilian casualties', said Vadim Ilavaysky, a shaven-headed rebel commander with a graying beard dressed in camouflage fatigues. 'This land will never welcome occupiers', he said in his office in the seized Kramatorsk administration building, where sandbags obscure the windows.
"The rebels' shifting tactics may make [Poroshenko's] task more difficult in practice. Some of them established city strongholds such as Slovyansk, where the proximity of civilians hinders the advance of government forces. Others move from town to town. If they're not killed or captured in firefights, they flee before popping up elsewhere, sometimes within hours.
" 'These tactics split government forces and make maneuvers trickier—the separatists are exploiting our weaknesses', said Mykola Sungurovskyi, head of military programs at the Razumkov Center in Kiev. 'Poroshenko is too optimistic. Even under favorable conditions, the operation would take a month.' " Ukraine Rebels Outfox Army
to Dent Poroshenko Troop Goal
"But between tensions in the east, a looming refugee crisis, restless oligarchs, and radical government reform, Poroshenko has made a lot of promises that may be difficult to deliver on. As Kyiv continues to conduct what it calls antiterrorist operations against Russian-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine, the country's soldiers are increasingly looking to charities and local volunteers to donate essentials like food, binoculars, and body armor.
"At the start of Ukraine's counteroffensive in April, only one in 100 soldiers was equipped with a bulletproof vest. Kevlar helmets and thermal-vision sniper scopes were also in short supply. In Warsaw on June 4, Poroshenko received a pledge from U.S. President Barack Obama to provide $5 million worth of body armor, night-vision goggles, and communication equipment. For now, however, many soldiers remain woefully undersupplied.
"The shortage is the legacy of a period of prolonged neglect. The Center for Army, Conversion, and Disarmament Research, a Kyiv-based think tank, says Ukraine would need to spend $20 billion a year to maintain a 200,000-strong, combat-ready military. In reality, spending in the past two decades never exceeded $1.3 billion a year." Ukrainian Military Waits
For Government To Act On
Promises Of Support
"Not long ago, volunteers in Kyiv cooked food at home and delivered it and other supplies daily to the activists manning the barricades in the battle that toppled former President Viktor Yanukovych.
"Now, volunteer groups across Ukraine are raising funds and buying equipment for soldiers fighting in the east of the country and, in some cases, delivering the supplies directly to the soldiers themselves.
"Tatiana Rychkova is one of the organizers of a volunteer group in Dnipropetrovsk in central Ukraine.
"She raises money to purchase bulletproof vests, binoculars, and pain-killing drugs. Then she loads it all into her car and heads for the restive Donbas region.
"Rychovka says she began after her husband, who is in the army, was wounded and hospitalized. She says she was shocked by the lack of basic supplies and decided to try to improve the soldiers' situation.
"Other activists have begun similar initiatives.
"Serhiy Karnoza belongs to a group called the 'Society of Dmitry Doncova', also in Dnipropetrovsk.
" 'We deliver directly into the hands of our soldiers and officers because we have no confidence in the command', he says.
"To cut costs, he says, his group has not registered as a charity and does not pay taxes. But it is cooperating with other activist groups in the city to set up a central website to make their efforts transparent to the public and track how much money is raised and spent." Army In Need: Volunteers Try
To Get Basic Supplies To
Ukraine's Forces
"Amid the chaos, however, the scope of the refugee crisis remains unclear.
"UNHCR, the United Nations' refugee agency, estimates that there are currently more than 17,500 internally displaced people (IDPs) in Ukraine.
"About 11,000 of these are former Crimea residents who fled the peninsula after its annexation by Russia in March. The rest are eastern Ukrainians forced out of their homes by the separatist conflict.
"The flow of refugees appears to have intensified since the government launched what it calls an 'antiterrorist operation' to root out separatists from eastern Ukraine in mid-April.
"Their real number is probably much higher than UNHCR's estimates, which don't include people who turned to nongovernmental groups for help or are waiting out the conflict with relatives.
"The information war between Moscow and Kyiv has raised yet more uncertainty about the number and whereabouts of Ukrainian refugees in Russia.
"State-run television channels in Russia have been broadcasting reports of refugee camps populated by Ukrainian families, and Russia now says it is facing a humanitarian crisis on its border—a claim vehemently rejected by Ukrainian authorities." Ukraine's Refugee Crisis
"Now a new movement is bringing pressure to bear on government.
"Recently created volunteer organizations EuroMaidan SOS, Vostok SOS and Donetsk SOS have pooled their resources in an effort to provide aid for those fleeing to western and central Ukraine. They have teamed up with the Foundation for the Development of Ukraine, a charity owned by Ukraine's richest man, Rinat Akhmetov.
"The self-organised initiative also has celebrity backing in the form of Ruslana Lyzhychko, a Eurovision song contest winner who was active during the recent anti-government protests in the capital. Lyzhychko, who now serves as the public face of the campaign, told the Kyiv Post that red tape is preventing the emergence of an official aid programme.
" 'We've had to rely on our own funds and resources. There's a wall of bureaucracy hindering government assistance. We can't bypass it—it's bureaucracy and that's it. The state is an inert and heavy apparatus. It needs to be pushed for results to be achieved', she said, adding that the group is currently helping 300 people find accommodation, 72 of them children.
"Signs are beginning to emerge that the government is finally recognising the scale of the problem.
"President Petro Poroshenko announced on June 10 the creation of 'evacuation corridors' to help refugees from the country's east, without clarifying how these will operate in practice. The following day Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk called for a database to be drawn up to assist their resettlement." Volunteer Movement Puts
Pressure on Government to Confront Refugee Crisis
Kyiv Post
"The impact on the current Ukraine crisis is significant. Kyiv enjoys some bargaining power with Moscow today largely because Russia needs Ukraine's cooperation to deliver so much of its gas to the European market.
" 'If South Stream is complete, it will make Ukraine much weaker with regard to Russia', Sergei Pikin, director of Energy Development Fund, a Moscow-based energy consultancy and engineering firm, told 'The Moscow Times' on June 9. 'Neither the United States nor the European Union want this to happen.'
"If Ukraine were to cease being a transit route, Kyiv's relations with Moscow would become simply those of a local gas consumer with little leverage, be it in bargaining over gas prices or discouraging Russia from further interfering in its domestic affairs." Is South Stream The Latest Victim Of the Ukraine Crisis?
"Officials said 49 people—40 troops and nine crew members—perished when a Ukrainian army transport aircraft was struck by a surface-to-air missile in the early morning hours of June 14 as it approached Luhansk airport, where heavily armed separatists control much of the area.
"The downing of the army aircraft came just hours after Washington said it could confirm Kyiv's claims that Russia has been sending heavy military equipment to pro-Russia separatists in eastern Ukraine—including tanks and rocket launchers.
" 'We assess that separatists in eastern Ukraine have acquired heavy weapons and military equipment from Russia, including Russian tanks and multiple rocket launchers', U.S. State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf said.
"She said a convoy of three T-64 tanks, several MB-21, or 'Grad' multiple rocket launchers, and other military vehicles had crossed from Russia into eastern Ukraine 'near the Ukrainian town of Snizhne' during the last three days—moving through several towns, including Snizhne, Torez, and Makiyivka.
"Harf said: 'Russia will claim these tanks were taken from Ukrainian forces, but no Ukrainian tank units have been operating in that area. We are confident that these tanks came from Russia.'
"She also said Washington has 'information that Russia has accumulated multiple rocket launchers at this same deployment site in southwest Russia, and these rocket launchers also recently departed.' " Ukraine Mourns 49 Troops Killed When Rebels Down Army Plane
"American officials said Russia was providing older weapons that its forces have phased out but that are known to remain in the Ukrainian military's inventory.
" 'The desire here is to mask the Russian hand' by allowing Ukrainian separatists to claim the weapons were captured on the battlefield, the administration official said...
"Mr. Putin appears to be calculating that he can continue to provide military support to the separatists without triggering tough economic reprisals as long as the Kremlin denies that it is involved and avoids obvious provocations, like sending conventional Russian military units into eastern Ukraine, American officials said." As Ukraine Announces Cease-
Fire, White House Points
Finger at Russia
The New York Times
"The key element in the current Ukraine crisis has been the ability of the Kremlin to maintain plausible deniability in the face of overt aggression, interference and invasion. Without this presentation, the diplomatic and economic links upon which Russia depends for leverage would be vulnerable. This leverage is most important with regards to European states who would be greatly hesitant to sacrifice their business interests and gas supplies.
"Instead of merely masking the identity of troops on the ground, the Kremlin has devolved its operational activities [in southern and eastern Ukraine] so as to present them as the actions of independent groups, whose interests merely happen to coincide with those of the Russian government. These apparently independent actors work on both a political and an operational level." Provocations, Proxies and Plausible Deniability
The Interpreter
"Unfortunately there is one country that excels at special war, and that's Russia. Moscow's proficiency in these dark arts goes back to the late Tsarist period, when the regime's solution to a rising terrorism problem was to penetrate terrorist groups while creating some of their own: a politically tricky strategy that worked nearly perfectly, as long as one is willing to close one's eyes at key moments. Proficiency in espionage, subversion, and terrorism was perfected under the Soviets, yet the skills of Russian intelligence in this domain have, if anything, increased under the rule of President Putin who, by virtue of being a onetime KGB counterintelligence officer, fully comprehends the power of special war.
"Special war works when competently handled. It's very cheap compared to any conventional military operations, and if executed properly it offers states a degree of plausible deniability while achieving state interests without fighting..." We're Entering The
Age Of 'Special War'
Business Insider
"Mr Dubovitsky's idea was featured in a short story published in March, as Russian forces were seizing control of Crimea. Its most telling detail is the author's real identity: Vladislav Surkov, a long-standing ideological adviser to Russia's president, Vladimir Putin. Mr Surkov's tale is a fanciful exercise, but it is also as good a blueprint as any for the Kremlin's efforts to direct the war in eastern Ukraine.
"...Mr Putin appears, at least for now, to have ruled out a full-frontal invasion. On June 24th he theatrically instructed the ever-loyal upper house of parliament to cancel the authorisation for military force in Ukraine that he had ordered up in early March. The move was largely an empty fob to Mr Poroshenko and another way to ward off more Western sanctions. Yet even if a tanks-and-soldiers invasion seems unlikely, a Russian invasion of another sort began long ago: one that resembles the slippery, post-modern war described by Mr Surkov.
"The nature of the incursion speaks volumes for the reach of the Russian state under Mr Putin. Today's Russia thinks of itself as a mobilisation state, ready to deploy a full array of instruments in a crisis. In Ukraine this means a policy that combines covert arms transfers, volunteer fighters called up by patriotic organisations, oligarchs and others, propaganda produced by state-run media, punitive arm-twisting over gas prices and a worsening of political repression at home....
"The advantage of such an approach is 'plausible deniability', explains Dmitry Gorenburg of CNA Corporation, a policy and security think-tank. Above all, it helps Russia to avoid a new round of American and European sanctions, which would aim not just at individuals but at entire industries. Existing sanctions and the fears of more to come have already had a 'chilling effect' on investment, according to the IMF, which now says that Russian GDP growth will be zero this year. The murkiness and obfuscation of Mr Putin's non-linear war in Ukraine also complicate Western diplomacy, dividing opinion and making it harder to find consensus.
"What Mr Putin would really like is a conflict of just the right size: big enough to force Mr Poroshenko into concessions but not so large it drags Russia in directly or forces it to subsidise Ukraine's eastern regions. As Mr Gorenburg explains, Mr Putin will facilitate the transfer of Russian arms, fighters and money so as to ensure that 'the insurgency isn't defeated, but while doing the minimum possible'.
"Mr Putin's apparent interest in an on-again, off-again cycle of ceasefires and negotiations suggests that he would like to lock the conflict in place, legitimising the so-called people's republics in Donetsk and Luhansk and raising the profile of these rebel commanders ready to take orders from Moscow. Such a war—oscillating between open fighting and political talks, but without ever being completely resolved—would resemble other frozen conflicts around the former Soviet Union. In Abkhazia, South Ossetia and Transdniestria, unsettled but largely bloodless conflicts serve to constrain the Georgian and Moldovan governments as well as providing a built-in lever for Russian meddling." War By Any Other Name
The Economist
"...[ Russia's actions vis-a-vis east Ukraine could in fact be termed a] 'remote controlled war'...Typically, this has been a war defined by the military doctrine of maskirovka, which traffics in concealment, plausible deniability, and carefully leaked or disseminated disinformation (dezinformatsiya) designed to both confuse the enemy and deter him from predicting or responding to one's next move...
"It's no coincidence that Russian forces are moving back to the border just as Ukraine appears to be making progress in the war. Kiev retook Mariupol on June 13; it's poised to retake Lugansk at any moment. So naturally, three days later, Russia's state-oil gas company Gazprom, after weeks of intense negotiations with Kiev, cut off the gas supply into Ukraine completely, citing its in-arrears status on payments for prior shipments. Then a gas pipeline in the Poltava region of Ukraine was suddenly blown up by unknown assailants." Putin Is Just Getting
Started in Ukraine
The Daily Beast
"A ceasefire proclaimed by Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has not been honored by the separatists, despite the hopes of policymakers in Moscow and Kiev. Although representatives of the self-proclaimed republic of Donetsk agreed to a ceasefire, separatists on June 23 shot down a Ukrainian army helicopter near Sloviansk. Ukrainian military checkpoints and border crossings were also fіred on.
"The separatists lack a leader who can guarantee that any agreement will actually be implemented. Separatist forces consist of several groups. In the Donetsk and Lugansk regions are groups of mercenaries from Russia, which the self-proclaimed republics can't control. One of these groups is now in the city of Gorlovka. Its leader's name is Botsman (Boatswain). He controls the situation in the city and answers to no boss in Ukraine. On his orders, Gorlovka's official mayor Eugene Klep was arrested and imprisoned in the basement of the police building.
"Every day mercenaries and volunteers from Russia continue to infiltrate the Donbass region of eastern Ukraine. Mercenaries are going to Ukraine to earn money, and their bosses don't pay them to observe a truce.
"...One of the military groups of Donetsk separatists is called the Russian Orthodox Army. They are religious fundamentalists, who believe that they protect Orthodox Christianity from the encroachment of the European devil. They care little about politics.
"Almost all the experts and journalists of Ukraine are united in their assessment. It is too early to talk about a truce. The war will continue until the region is free of armed separatists and mercenaries. Otherwise the territory occupied by the separatists may turn into a European Somalia. The major cities of the Donetsk region already are reporting water shortages. Dozens of retail stores and banks don't work, while small and midsize businesses have almost stopped operating. Reports of missing and dead people from the occupied territory come in every day. Donetsk Mayor Oleksandr Lukyanchenko said at his press conference on June 24 that the crime situation in the city has deteriorated. Despite the pause in antiseparatist operations, 27 people disappeared in Donetsk last week. Forty-seven cars were stolen, 42 of them commandeered by armed men on the road. They said they were taking the cars for the revolution." In Ukraine, Signs of
a Truce Unraveling
Business Week
"A total of 356 people are known to have been killed since mid-April, Gianni Magazzeni, a senior United Nations human rights official, told reporters in Geneva as he presented the latest in a series of monthly reports by the United Nations' team of 34 monitors in Ukraine.
"The dead included 257 civilians and 86 Ukrainian military personnel, including the 49 who were killed last week when separatists shot down a military transport plane with a shoulder-launched missile as it approached Luhansk airport, Mr. Magazzeni said. The report did not offer additional details about the remaining 13 deaths.
" 'We are talking of a reign of fear, if not of terror' in the territory around Donetsk and Luhansk controlled by armed separatists and now in a state of lawlessness, Mr. Magazzeni said, citing cases of people shot at checkpoints for no reason and members of armed groups who were summarily shot because they no longer wanted to fight.
" 'The escalation in criminal activity resulting in human rights abuses is no longer limited to targeting journalists, elected representatives, local politicians, civil servants and civil society activists', the report stated. 'Abductions, detentions, acts of ill treatment and torture and killings by armed groups are now affecting the broader population of the two eastern regions.' "
"The United Nations refugee agency has reported that more than 34,000 Ukrainians have been displaced. Most were from Crimea, where people who speak Ukrainian or do not want to change their nationality to Russian face discrimination and intimidation, Mr. Magazzeni said." U.N. Report Details
Casualties in Eastern Ukraine
The New York Times
"The argument was that Vladimir Putin, Russia's president, had got most of what he wanted in Crimea and eastern Ukraine, not least a big boost in popularity at home. Partly thanks to two rounds of sanctions against individuals close to him, he had blinked: hence his decision to pull troops back from the border and more or less to accept Petro Poroshenko as Ukraine's legitimate president after his election on May 25th. Thus there is no need for further sanctions that could wreak damage on Europe's shaky economies as well as on Russia.
"The past two weeks have exposed this as wishful thinking. Violence has increased in eastern Ukraine as the government in Kiev has sought to regain control and the rebels have fought back. The government's unilateral ceasefire announced this week looks unlikely to work...Evidence of deeper Russian involvement is ever clearer: not just rising numbers of Chechen and other Russian mercenaries but also the supply of weapons, including missiles that may have been used to shoot down a Ukrainian military aircraft, and even tanks that have rumbled over the border. Meanwhile hopes that Mr Poroshenko might strike a deal on gas supplies from Russia have been thwarted because, for the third time in eight years, the Russian gas giant, Gazprom, has turned off the taps..." Unblinking Putin
The Economist
"Putin today asked the Russian parliament to cancel his mandate to send troops into Ukraine, which he had requested on March 1. That request led to the annexation of Crimea, and chilled relations between Russia and the West. It also had economic consequences, sending the ruble and Russian stocks tumbling and restricting Russia's access to global finance. Moscow's isolation created a $20 billion void in the global bond market, which was filled by issuers from other nations.
"That doesn't mean Ukraine can breath a sigh of relief. 'Putin has no intention to cease destabilizing the situation in our country', Ukrainian columnist Vitaly Portnikov wrote on Newsru.ua. 'Putin just wants Obama to believe in his intentions. He is still convinced that only two tools work in global politics: deceit and bargaining.'
"Given his rubber-stamp parliament, Putin can gain permission to send troops back to Ukraine at any time. Besides, if Putin's goal is to keep Poroshenko off balance, an invasion isn't necessary. Russia has already succeeded in drawing out the conflict, arming rebels and making it possible for Russian citizens to fight on the separatists' side. So much for 'deceit'.
"As for 'bargaining', it has now started in Donetsk, with Ukrainians from both camps searching for compromise...
"In effect, Putin is now ready to enter the quiet phase of his Ukraine operation. The West will acquiesce to his game—but only after claiming that sanctions have been a success." Putin Readies Stealth
Mode in Ukraine
Bloomberg View
"Once again, Mr Putin is playing mind games with his opponents. The latest events show that his unrelenting war against Ukraine's new postrevolutionary government is as much psychological as military. In this campaign, Mr Putin ensures that every signal is mixed, every line blurred, every apparently simple statement transformed into a puzzle.
"By spinning this all-embracing web of doubt, Mr Putin is trying to retain control over this crisis. He wants to be the only leader able to think two or three stages ahead, while his opponents are still trying to work out the meaning of his last move. Nonetheless, for all his adeptness at keeping his adversaries permanently off-balance, Mr Putin is still running risks.
"The first is that the insurgency which he helped to ignite in Donetsk and Luhansk is now running out of his control. In the last month, the rebels have split into rival bands, with mysterious new forces appearing. Alexander Borodai, the Russian citizen who emerged this month as 'prime minister' of the 'Donetsk People's Republic', freely admits that some 'bandits' are 'misusing the name' of the rebellion to run looting and extortion rackets.
"The second risk is that Ukraine's military offensive might start to succeed. So far, this operation has been conducted with clumsiness and heavy-handedness, but Ukraine's army is vastly stronger than the rebels. If Mr Poroshenko's generals can improve their performance, perhaps with the benefit of Western advice, they might just be able to threaten the insurgents with military defeat. If so, Mr Putin would confront a psychological dilemma of his own: give the rebels more military support and risk tougher Western sanctions; or sit back and watch them be vanquished?" Putin is Playing Mind
Games with the West
The Telegraph
"Hawkish members of Putin's inner circle have become increasingly demanding, and there are increasing signs of discord at the top of the Russian leadership. Even if Putin did try to soften his stance, it is far from clear that his lieutenants would carry out his orders.
"Putin's economic adviser, Sergei Glazyev, has made a series of bellicose statements, including his recent proposal to send Russian military jets to protect the rebels in eastern Ukraine from government air raids. The Kremlin disavowed his words, saying Glazyev was expressing his private opinion.
"Other Russian hawks could be working quietly behind the scenes, orchestrating covert assistance to the rebels...
"Rebel leaders have pleaded with the Kremlin for military assistance, and some prominent Russian nationalists have publicly taunted Putin for cowardice. Such criticism could resonate with the broader Russian public, which has been heavily influenced by Russian state television's characterization of the Kiev government as a 'fascist junta' that is killing Russian-speakers.
"While the Kremlin has recently moved to tone down the rhetoric in the news media, many Russians—full of patriotic fervor after the annexation of Crimea in March—expect Putin to take resolute action.
"In a sense, Putin has become a hostage of his own game of raising the stakes and fiery rhetoric, and it could be hard for him to soften his posture toward Ukraine without eroding his power." Putin Under Pressure as
Fighting Rages in Ukraine
"Far from indicating a master strategist at work, Putin's twisted logic and contradictory rhetoric have created a web of preposterous claims that, together with his imperialist policies, have forced him and Russia into a dead end with no easy way out..." Putin's Zugzwang: The
Russia-Ukraine Standoff
World Affairs Journal
"Putin's tactics in Ukraine strikingly resemble Milošević's treatment of the so-called Greater Serbia region (the region with self-proclaimed pro-Serbian republics, partially located in modern-day Croatia) during the breakup of Yugoslavia. First, both Serbia and Russia fueled intense nationalism among Serbs and Russians against Croats and Ukrainians through mass media propaganda. Then they empowered the uprising of ethnic minorities within Croatia and Ukraine, and next, they engaged the military under a declared 'need to protect minorities'. Finally, they established self-proclaimed, semi-independent republics in both Croatia and Ukraine...
"..In the Kremlin's view, Milošević's tactics against Croatia were correct, and it was the NATO engagement that prevented him from success. The moral of the story is that the Kremlin will likely keep copying the Yugoslav scenario, but will apply subtler tactics to avoid provoking the NATO involvement. Further events will show us how far the resemblance will go." Putin Is Behaving in Ukraine
Like Milošević Did in Serbia
The New Republic
"German and French policies prioritize bilateral relations with Russia at the expense of Ukraine in the ongoing crisis. The United States, which does not do so, and differs with Berlin and Paris in this regard, was not invited to the Berlin meeting. Neither was the European Commission; whereas France, a negligible player in this crisis, was invited to the Berlin meeting for symbolic support to a basically German overture toward Russia.
"This marks an unprecedented advance of Germany's ambition to handle security issues in Europe's East on a bilateral Russo-German basis (as foreshadowed in the 2010 Meseberg Memorandum), excluding the United States and bypassing the European Union. In the current crisis, German policy is guided by the principle of defusing tensions with Russia over Ukraine and returning to business as usual with Russia after a decent interval.
"...Germany...seeks to establish a bilateral ceasefire and follow-up negotiations between the Ukrainian government and the pro-Russia secessionists, in a framework that includes Russia while excluding the West. These elements form the basis of a Russo-German consensus regarding Ukraine." Ukraine Makes Far-Reaching Concessions to Russia at
Berlin Meeting
The Jamestown Foundation
"Petro Poroshenko, who was elected president in late May after vowing to quickly resolve Ukraine's worst crisis since independence in 1991, ordered his forces to raise the national flag over the city.
" 'Local residents are handing over [to government forces] the weapons abandoned by the rebels', he said. 'This is the disarmament I was talking about when I unveiled my peace plan for resolving the situation in the east.' " Ukraine Army Regains
Control of Slavyansk
The Guardian
"The question that no-one can answer right now...is whether this in fact constitutes a turning point in the conflict.
"The rebels still seem to have large numbers in their ranks, and significant stores of weapons and military hardware. They continue to control a decent amount of territory in the east, though this apparently has been circumscribed somewhat in recent days.
"They say they are motivated and will fight to the last man.
"Nevertheless, there are indications that the fall of Sloviansk may indeed have been a watershed moment.
"Even if this was a 'tactical retreat', as some rebel leaders described it, the key word here seems to be 'retreat'. The insurgents are for the first time on the back foot, and government forces ascendant.
"What is more, the reasons given for the withdrawal are significant. The rebels said they were simply outmanned and outgunned by the government forces." Sloviansk: Turning
Point for Ukraine?
"In the past week, however, after President Petro O. Poroshenko called off a cease-fire and ordered his troops to end the rebellion by force, an entirely different Ukrainian military appeared to arrive at the front. Soldiers retook an important checkpoint at the Russian border, routed insurgents from the long-occupied city of Slovyansk, and, on Sunday, began to tighten a noose around the regional capital of Donetsk ahead of a potentially decisive showdown.
"The insurgency is far from over, and Ukraine's leaders say they still fear a war with Russia that they would certainly lose. Still, the recent success, however tentative, reflects what officials and analysts described as a remarkable, urgent transformation of the military and security apparatus in recent months.
" 'The military themselves learned to fight', said Mykola Sungurovskyi, the director of military programs at the Razumkov Center, a policy research organization here in the capital of Ukraine.
"By most standards, the Ukrainian armed forces remain in a pitiful state. But they have benefited from the enlistment of thousands of volunteers into new militias, financial donations by ordinary citizens—including a Kiev Internet-technology entrepreneur who raised $35,000 and built a surveillance drone—and an aggressive push to repair and upgrade armored personnel carriers and other equipment." Ukraine Military Finds Its Footing Against Pro-Russian Rebels
The New York Times
"Poroshenko faces a decision on whether to attempt a final and decisive victory over the separatist movement by taking on the fighters in Donetsk and Luhansk, major urban conurbations where civilian casualties would appear to be likely.
"Already, there is a huge amount of anger in the east over some of the methods used during the 'anti-terrorist operation' to rid the east of fighters, much of which has relied on hastily assembled volunteer battalions.
"Tanya Lokshina, of Human Rights Watch, called on the Ukrainian authorities to mount a 'thorough and impartial investigation' into apparent air strikes on villages near Luhansk that killed a number of civilians including a five-year-old boy, according to witnesses." Ukrainian President Hails Breakthrough as Slavyansk
Seized from Separatists
The Guardian
"The upshot for Donetsk, once a city of a million people, is as much psychological as physical. Tens of thousands have fled and hundreds of businesses have closed. A surreal atmosphere pervades the city centre, where ATMs have run out of cash, shops shut early, and it is not uncommon to see men with machine guns posted outside a sushi restaurant or behind the wheel of a city ambulance...
"...Rebels driven from the separatist town of Slavyansk this weekend are now reportedly regrouping in Donetsk. A precarious city just became even more precarious." Donetsk Becomes a Ghost Town as Fearful Residents Flee Conflict
The Guardian
"Russian media have also changed their tone markedly since the Ukrainian counteroffensive began to make major progress in mid-June. There has been a sharp decline in the use of terms like 'fascist junta' to describe Ukraine's government. Some Russian media outlets have even reported on the humanitarian relief efforts by Ukraine's forces.
"Russian public opinion appears to have shifted accordingly. A survey released this week by VTsIOM, a Kremlin-friendly polling group, showed that 66% of Russians now oppose military intervention in Ukraine, while in March a poll by the Levada Center found that 65% of Russians said Russia has the right to militarily intervene in both Crimea and Eastern Ukraine.
"...[T]he reality is that no matter the outcome, President Putin's Ukraine strategy is a shambles. By taking Crimea and fomenting a violent insurgency that has left as many as 2,000 dead, he has turned a country that had a large pro-Russian minority against him, caused a surge of Ukrainian patriotism, and contributed to the emergence of a solid pro-EU majority in Ukraine." Putin's Ukraine Assault: In a Shambles but Far From Over
The Wall Street Journal
"Most likely the secret support for the rebels, through supplies of volunteers and arms, will continue.
"That support does not go far enough for those fighters who want to attach south-eastern Ukraine to Russia—a part of Ukraine already described by Kremlin propagandists as 'Novorossiya' (New Russia).
"The Kremlin will try to keep Mr Strelkov in Ukraine with his followers, armed with Kalashnikovs. Otherwise they would stir up trouble for Russia, armed and angry.
"So for now Moscow's goal will be to maintain controllable chaos in Ukraine. That policy will also serve to show the Russian people that any attempt at a Ukraine-style 'colour revolution', any attempt to get rid of the authoritarian state, will result in chaos and civil war." Ukraine Army Still Far from
Victory over Rebels in East
"The change in tone is already evident on Russia's propaganda channels, which still depict the rebel fighters as heroes and martyrs—but not a part of any Russian war. 'No one is talking about sending in troops anymore. That conversation is over', says Mikhail Leontiev, one of the leading spin doctors on state-controlled TV...
"...[I]nstead of offering much material assistance, Putin's allies seem to have launched a slander campaign against Girkin and his men, even accusing them of 'crying like women' about a lack of firepower before abandoning the rebel stronghold of Slavyansk this weekend...
"...Russian nationalists have begun to turn on [Putin] as well, posting diatribes and even music videos that seek to goad Putin into war, juxtaposing his pledges to 'defend the Russian world' with images of bombed-out villages and Russian corpses in Ukraine. 'We gave them hope', Alexander Dugin, one of the leading nationalist ideologues in Russia, said during a television appearance last week. 'When we said we're a united Russian civilization, this didn't just come from a few patriotic forces. It came from the President!' " Ukraine Rebels Call Putin a
Coward After Russian Inaction
"That's a striking turnabout from just a few weeks ago, when Ukraine's forces seemed ragtag and reluctant to fight. But it doesn't mean a military victory is likely, or desirable.
"The cities retaken over the past few days were relatively small (the largest, Kramatorsk, has a population of 165,000) and lightly defended. Donetsk, the region's biggest city with some 1 million inhabitants, is still in the hands of rebels. Rooting them out would be a long and brutal process. 'They would have to do it street by street', says Mark Galeotti, a professor of global affairs at New York University. 'The cost in body bags would be high.'
"True, Ukraine's forces are now better trained and equipped than before, thanks in part to $23 million in recent U.S. aid. But they're still no match for Russia's military—and Russia won't let Ukraine retake Donetsk without a serious fight, Ian Bremmer, head of the political risk research firm Eurasia Group, told Bloomberg Television today. Although the flow of aid to the rebels from across Russia's border appears to have slowed, it could resume at any time, turning the battle for the city into a bloodbath....
"While Russia is unlikely to invade Ukraine, it could step up its involvement to weaken the Ukrainian military's effectiveness against the rebels, Galeotti says. One possibility, he says, might be a no-fly zone enforced by the Russian air force.
"Ukrainian forces have used heavy artillery to dislodge rebels from some other locales, but that tactic would 'produce many more civilian casualties' in densely-populated Donetsk, Edward Walker, head of the Soviet & Post-Soviet Studies Program at the University of California, Berkeley, writes on his blog. 'Kiev is going to face a very difficult decision.' " Why Ukraine Can't Win an All-Out Military Victory—and Shouldn't Try
Business Week
"Mr. Poroshenko said the operation headquarters would be moved closer to Donetsk, but pledged there would be no street fighting. Military advisers said that the army would surround Donetsk and use targeted artillery strikes to hit rebel positions." Ukraine Lays Plan to Besiege Rebels in Eastern City
The Wall Street Journal
" 'It's in their advantage to get into the big cities, because the options of the government forces will be even more limited', Mr. Melnyk said..." Ukraine Rebels Are
Retreating for Last Stand
The New York Times
"Nobody has succeeded in defeating paramilitaries who are embedded in a city, virtually turning its residents into a human shield—the Americans did not win such a conflict in Mogadishu, Somalia, nor did the Russians win in the Chechen capital Grozny.
"In such a situation a regular army cannot use its superiority in heavy weapons over rebels—weapons such as armoured vehicles, aircraft and artillery.
"The army may manage—after huge efforts—to capture one town, destroying it with heavy artillery, only to find that the rebels have simply moved to another town. That town in turn has to be taken by storm, and then the same thing happens in a third town.
"So far there is no clear answer to the question: which side will be first to incur the local residents' hostility? The rebels, whose appearance will be a signal of impending clashes? Or the regular troops, whose use of heavy weapons will cause civilian casualties and destroy homes? Either way, there is no early end in sight." Ukraine Army Still Far from
Victory over Rebels in East
"Making that task impossible is precisely what Mr Putin intends. His urge to prevent Ukraine escaping Russia's influence is long-standing; recent setbacks, such as Mr Poroshenko's trade deal with the European Union, will have strengthened his resolve. Using the country's east as a brake on westward moves in Kiev remains his best option. True, some Russian troops have pulled back from Ukraine's eastern border; Russia's parliament has revoked its authorisation for their deployment. But Mr Putin can wreak havoc without them, even if Donetsk falls, through sabotage and guerrilla strikes." The Siege
The Economist
"At the same time, the Kremlin is still allowing weapons and fighters to cross the border into Ukraine, rebels and officials in Kiev and the West say, and keeping up diplomatic pressure on Kiev to stop its offensive.
"By sending mixed signals, Mr. Putin is trying—again—to blunt any push in the West for stronger economic sanctions against Russia.
" 'Putin will fly just under the radar, that's what he's been doing', says Dmitry Trenin of the Moscow Carnegie Center.
"The Kremlin also wants to shift the conflict from the battlefield, where Kiev appears to be gaining momentum and the costs of Russian intervention would be prohibitive, 'to the political field and the economic field, where Russia has lots of levers to put pressure on Ukraine', said Mr. Trenin.
"So far, the Kremlin has repeatedly dodged the threat of tougher measures with steps that appeared to reduce tensions but didn't actually take the heat off.
"Most recently, European leaders set a June 30 deadline for Moscow to push the separatists to give up key border crossings or face more sanctions, backing up the threat with personal calls to Mr. Putin.
"The Kremlin responded with its own offer of joint border patrols. That plan never took off, but the gesture was enough to deflect the drive for new sanctions.
"The focus on the conflict in the east also has another benefit for Moscow—taking the spotlight off its annexation of Crimea in March. The Kremlin has drawn up expensive plans to link the strategic peninsula to the Russian mainland, and still brooks no questioning of its new status.
"For months, [the Kremlin] has stoked nationalistic emotions at home with heavy propaganda on state television. Mr. Putin has frequent[ly] pledged to protect the interests of compatriots even outside Russia's borders.
"Although 'a prolonged military conflict isn't in Russia's interests', the Kremlin has to find a way to shift the conflict to the political track 'without appearing to betray' the separatists, says Mr. Trenin of the Moscow Carnegie Center.
"Publicly, the Kremlin continues to advocate diplomacy, but without acceding to Kiev's demands that the separatists disarm first.
" 'What Putin wants is to preserve some kind of appearance of a negotiated process', says Dimitri Simes, president of the Center for the National Interest think tank in Washington and a Russia specialist.
"A revival of talks would raise the pressure on Kiev to suspend its military operation again, giving the rebels a new lease on life while legitimizing their leaders as a political force..." Putin's Moves on Ukraine
Keep West Guessing
The Wall Street Journal
"Western leaders are only too willing to be convinced that Kiev's problems are merely an internal affair and nothing more, and they have pressured Kiev to accept the same assessment. While the West has demanded that Moscow end its support for the separatists, it refuses to name Russia as a party in this conflict and therefore does not consider it an 'aggressor'. The West's leaders believe (or pretend to believe) that if they talk to the Kremlin and engage Russia, they will change the Kremlin's behavior. And Putin, a master at pretending to be accommodating while in fact forcing others to play his game, has offered his Western counterparts all the evidence they need to satisfy themselves that they're right: See, he isn't invading Ukraine after all! Nor is he supporting the separatists. Western decisiveness has prevented a new Russian incursion, Western observers gleefully say. In fact, Putin never intended to annex Ukraine's southeast; he doesn't need the added headache! It's sufficient for Kremlin purposes to turn the southeast into a new Transnistria. If he can remove the threat of new sanctions and other troubles by 'conceding' something he never wanted in the first place, why not let the Western leaders think it was their decisive leadership that made him change course.
"Peace talks would be productive if a compromise between the warring factions were possible. But if Moscow isn't about to stop destabilizing Ukraine, and if the separatists are intent on occupying part of the Donbass region, then what can they accomplish? Any Ukrainian leader who agreed to a compromise under these terms would immediately lose his legitimacy and popular support. The only talks that are possible aren't truce talks, but talks for a separatist surrender. Anything else would just prolong the confrontation and continue the disintegration of an already fragile Ukrainian state." Blurred Lines Between War and Peace
The American Interest
"If the Ukrainian government forces prevail and deny the Donbas rebels their vital lines of supplies—by cutting off Luhansk from Russia and Donetsk from Luhansk—there would most likely be no need to go into the bloody mess of directly storming the big cities...The Donbas rebellion may indeed be close to a military collapse, creating a problem for the Kremlin, which may not be ready to accept such an outcome. Valentina Matviyenko, the chair of Russia's upper house of parliament—the Federation Council...has accused the government in Kyiv of deliberately refusing to negotiate a peaceful solution with the Donbas rebels and promised that Moscow 'will continue to force the Ukrainian authorities to negotiate'...Moscow has been pressing for an immediate ceasefire in Donbas that could prevent a military collapse of the separatist rebellion and has reportedly enlisted the support of Germany and France to put pressure on Kyiv to comply, but the Ukrainian forces seem to be reluctant to stop hostilities before the border with Russia is secured." Total Rebel Defeat Not Seen as an Acceptable Option in the Kremlin
The Jamestown Foundation
"It's possible that Kiev may be forced to support the idea of granting Donbass 'special status'. There are still powerful figures in the region, including the oligarch Rinat Akhmetov, who would like to secure autonomy and continue their dialogue with the Kremlin. The Ukrainian authorities may decide to get rid of the chaos-plagued part of Donbass that would resist transformation. But this scenario would not strengthen Ukrainian statehood. The separatist-controlled territory would become a black hole—a breeding grounds for violence that would spread to the neighboring countries, including Russia." Blurred Lines Between War and Peace
The American Interest