The Pushback in Ukraine

NYT ^ | May 23, 2014 | Adrian Karatnycky

[1rudeboy]

KIEV, Ukraine — A few short weeks ago the Kiev I visited was awash in talk of terrorist plots and civil war.

The lightning-quick annexation of Crimea by Russian troops had created much anxiety. People feared that the commemoration of May 9, the day on which Ukraine and Russia celebrate the Soviet Union’s victory in World War II, would encourage pro-Moscow insurgents to seize government buildings beyond their strongholds in eastern Ukraine. Hundreds of well-armed and well-trained men, many with links to Russia, had already moved into hard-scrabble industrial cities near the Russian border. There had been violent clashes between Ukrainian patriots and pro-Russian separatists in Odessa, in the south.

The mood today is markedly different. Voters throughout Ukraine will go to the polls for the presidential election on Sunday amid clear signs that major unrest is abating and that President Vladimir V. Putin is backing away from his gambit to annex more Ukrainian territory.

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.

[Kozak]

LOL. 20 Russians in Germany. Quite the protest.

[caww]

I hope the day comes when you jerks, who knock every poster you don't agree with, can find something to actually say that's meaningful rather than your constant badgering of others......People present evidence or comment and all you do is ‘react’ rather than converse. It's like you have this private club whose agenda is to purposely incite arguments and discord on FR....which is exactly what liberals do. Therefore you're just another to ignore.

[caww]

Bulgaria Protest... "Down with the Kiev junta!"

[caww]

Since photos aren’t enough for you...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G0KzR7G3e-Y#t=37

[Kozak]

Funny. The little club of Putinistas who troll Russian propaganda sites
and endlessly repeat the already discredited lies, and make endless excuses for aggression get all butt hurt.

[caww]

You miss the mark time and again as you discredit nothing at all, you simply bark and bite. There are no Putinistas, as you call them on FR, this is just a figment of your own deranged imagination because you refuse and deny to see what IS, instead you see what and how you want it to be....that is a disconnect from reality.