The paratroops in armored vehicles that were sent in to secure control of the town of Kramatorsk have either defected to the Russian side (as interviews with some of them indicate) or surrendered their vehicles to pro-Russian forces.
Kiev needs to wake up to reality here. There is no way they can keep these provinces by force. Negotiation is the only answer, and that in effect means negotiation with Putin, painful as that might be.
worst job in the world this week seems to be a soldier in the ‘Ukrainian’ army sent east. They’re basically not up for this fight, and who can blame them - they know they’re puppets.
Other vids and locations also available from that link - liking the Lada chasing a tank.
The kind of imperial overlord that waits until its colony holds democratic elections before signing a co-operation agreement with it. I’m sure Haiti, Cuba or India would have loved to have been part of such an empire in the past
From what I’ve read, their conventional forces’ decay since independence outpaced the Russians, and ironically Yanukovych had announced plans to reorganize and upgrade. Ironically because an army in good shape to put down a seccesion or resist an invasion would have also been in good shape to put down a popular uprising (unless of course they took the protesters’ side…).
The Ukrainian military seems demoralized. It’s one thing if you’re unwilling to strike at your own citizens; or if you’re aware that any real aggressive action is suicide. But moving in just to surrender, well, that’s not a good sign…
You seem to have a bizzare definition of the term “in dispute.” Let me spell it out for you: The mere fact that negotiations over Russia’s lease were contentious did not mean that Sevastopol was “in dispute” because at the time all sides still agreed that it was under Ukrainian soverignty. The fact that Russia now has de facto control over Sevastopol does not make the issue “settled” because there is still disagreement over who has de jour soverignty. Why is that so difficult for you to understand?
They just spent the last few weeks not forcing the issue while protesters take over building after government buildings. I think they had a sense of the futility before this. The problem is what to actually do. Just let everyone who asks be an autonomous state? Just give the east to Russia?
There is nothing wrong with my definition of dispute. The lease didn’t settle the essential matter of ownership in terms of Russian’s having the right to be there. The resident’s of Sevastopol did not relinquish their love for Russia when or because the lease was in effect. The lease did not turn them into Ukrainians. The dispute is over now because the residents of Sevastopol are re-united with the original owner of Catherin the Great’s Crown Jewel port city. When I say the dispute has ended it is akin to the reality that the ‘flashpoint between Russia and Ukraine’ has been extinguished and that was achieved with a remarkable series of non-violent events on the entire peninsula of Crimea. Sevastopol is not a flashpoint now and it is not conceivable that Ukraine has any intention of taking Crimea back.
Sevastopol may not be a flashpoint right now, but the rest of Ukraine is. That is “remarkable” alright, but not in the sense that you mean. Russia has succeeded in destabilizing a large chunk of Ukraine. The fact that you are cheerleading that situation is confusing at best, terribly disturbing at worse. Most of us do not wish for there to be another war in Europe, but that’s just crazy us.
The West rushed in like fools to support a regime which had no legitimacy at all in the eyes of half of the country. That regime, which had practically no representation at all from the Eastern provinces, then signed deals with the EU and IMF which would have had massive consequences both financially and politically for those provinces. (The IMF conditions were particularly harsh and would have cut deep in the industrial East). Is it any wonder that the populace there felt aggrieved?
The trouble with your analysis is that the Ukrainian authorities that are now acting independently are not the* ‘authority’ *that won the last election. The current government has become “the authority” as a result of Euromaidan mobocracy. The Maidan protesters were not seeking Ukrainian independence. True independence would be a demand by all Ukrainians that Ukraine trades equally and in Ukraine’s best interest with their neighbor to the east and their neighbors to the west. The Maidan protestors were seeking dependence on the West. And you can’t tell me the West’s motivations were not based on s desire to slap Putin around and spit in his eye. ‘’
The Wests’ jubilation on this news was quite short-lived though, was it not?‘’’
Deputies in the assembly stood, applauded and sang the national anthem.
US Senator’s McCain and Patrick Murphy achieved their goals … were they applauding and singing the Ukrainian anthem right along with the Maidan Protestors having shared the stage in Protest with them in this unfolding debacle.?
Pro-Maidan Politicians in the US and EU need to be held accountable for the mess they contributed to making.
Cars don’t have 287 years of history and they don’t come with people already living in them as is the case in Sevastopol. Do you agree the ‘flashpoint’ of Sevastopol has been distinguished with the return of Sevastopol to its rightful and long term owner.
The people who live there are where they’d rather be and there is no claims by Ukraine that would justify any use of force to take Catherine the Great’s city and port back.
John McCain and Patrick Murphy’s pouting is to no avail and bothers not one Russian soul in Moscow or in Sevastopol, nor will he bother them ever again.
Are you Pro-Maidan Like John McCain and Patrick Murphy or Anti-Maidan like the majority of the residents in Southern and Eastern Ukraine.
I don’t wish for war and never did. When the pro-maidan’s back off there be no more flashpoint in Eastern Ukraine also.
Why did our government recognize the pro-maidan interim government after the coup last February? Aren’t you for staying out of other country’s internal affairs?
Pro-Maidans forced the breakdown of constitutional law and order which triggered all events since.
The rest of the world needs to pressure the illegal pro-Maidan government to refrains from the use of military force on the Ukrainian anti-Maidan protesters in the east and south. That is if you and the rest of the West don’t want to see a civil war in Ukraine.
Why are you cheerleading for the pro-Maidan side? They started all this.
Do you notice the word ‘response’ - *as an apparent response to the 2014 Ukrainian revolution * - and “revolution”… ???
The landlord is presumably the elected leader that ‘owns’ the property and manages it. They had a revolution and tossed the legal owner out onto the street. Russia then does not recognize the new owners and having been asked by the citizenry of Sevastopol to back their ‘own’ revolution by holding a referendum on ‘re- annexation’ with Russia where they truly want to be and where they historically and in spirit belong - so they backed it and did it and its over.
You condone one revolution which happened first… but you complain about the revolution that only ‘came in response’ to the first.