Posted on 04/23/2015 4:13:26 AM PDT by Paid_Russian_Troll
No one in Russian-speaking Kharkiv wants to follow rebels into open revolt. But locals say Kiev has no idea how badly it's aggravating the region with its initiatives, including the 'Great Wall of Ukraine.'
It's been nicknamed the "Great Wall of Ukraine." Its planned combination of barbed-wire fences, watchtowers, berms, and tank traps along Ukraine's 1,300-mile border with Russia look like something you'd find on one of Israel's borders with its hostile neighbors.
If it's ever completed, the wall will seal a frontier that, until last year, had always been wide open. Inaugurating construction here last fall, Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk indicated that much more than just a physical barrier was intended. "This will be the eastern border of Europe," he said.
But in nearby Kharkiv, an overwhelmingly Russian-speaking city of one-and-a-half million, mention of the wall is mostly greeted with snorts of irritation. The idea of splitting permanently and irrevocably from Russia wins virtually no acceptance. Many people here have family and friends in Russia, the local economy is heavily dependent on trade with Russia, and some say they just can't wrap their heads around the idea of a frontier being there in the first place. "The Russian city of Belgorod is an hour's drive away; until recently there were almost no border formalities. It's a scene of my childhood; I love that place," says Yury Smirnov, a taxi driver. "Now the border inspections take hours, and it's humiliating. Belgorod might as well be on the moon."
The tension between Kharkiv and Kiev is all too obvious these days. While pro-Kiev patriots are visible – groups of activists tore down three prominent Soviet-era monuments under cover of night last week – most conversations with people quickly reveal varying degrees of anger and disillusionment with the new revolutionary government.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
Stopping the supply of Russian weapons into Ukraine is a problem caused by Kiev?
Oh yea, not having an open border with Mexico is a problem caused by...never mind, we have an open border.
There are too many Russian plants and plain idiots in Kharkiv, that’s true. Fortunately, majority of people there are sane, so the wall will be built and Ukraine will be protected from Russian orcs.
Russian speaking cities like Kharkov and Dnepropetrovsk have shown no desire to split from Russia.
Kiev’s main problem is excluding Russia is doomed to fail if for no other reason than history, language, geography and culture.
The rift line running through Ukraine is as wide and deep as the Dnieper.
“No one in Russian-speaking Kharkiv wants to follow rebels into open revolt”
That is the key right there. “Rebels” are Russians coming from Russia with heavy weapons and constant resupply provided by Russian Army across this very border, that Ukraine wants to secure.
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