In Crimea? Where 99% voted to join Russia?
Does not sound logical?

That's exactly one of the reasons why people voted. Imagine you wake up one day in Switzerland and all international schools closed, you can't speak your mother tongue or risk an assault...

Imagine I wake up one day in Switzerland and find all the important buildings taken over by armed soldiers wearing uniforms which have no identification.


Of course I would vote for the people pointing their guns.

Pro Russian separatists this weekend torched several armoured vehicles in Donetsk belonging to a monitoring mission of the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe.
It is assumed their aim was to prevent the OSCE from witnessing new attacks.


http://www.osce.org/ukraine-smm/176456

Russian Major captured fighting in Ukraine appeals directly on video to Putin:
Also interviewed by Euronews:

Intense shelling around Ukrainian held Mariupol the last few days. A large influx of Russian troops in the area reported, and an assault on Mariupol itself is possible. Germany's Steinmeier says the situation is explosive and risks worsening. Russia also announced another massive delivery of groceries (and ammo, etc.) to their "pro-Russian" enclaves in Ukraine (while destroying 500 tons of food in Russia last week)

Good analysis of current escalation in E.Ukraine. In short, Russia is using military attacks to put political pressure on Kiev. Russia won't take Mariupol, because of it's fortifications and immediate new round of Western sanction, but may take some smaller objectives.

http://www.cepa.org/content/west-leg...aines-division

Monday is a meeting in Berlin between Merkel, Hollandale and Poroshenko (Putin wasn't invited). Merkel may be seeking to push Ukraine into accepting the Russian-backed regions back into Ukraine. Ukraine however is strongly against that.

http://uatoday.tv/politics/poroshenk...in-479494.html


Russia claims that Putin initiated the meeting (altho didn't invite himself?), but they also have the feeling that the aim of the meeting is to pressure Ukraine to take the break-away regions back into Ukraine, or else face further military escalations (note: Russian-backed attacks are usually precluded by Russian media announcements saying Kiev is preparing to attack)

Meanwhile the pro-Russian people in E. Ukraine are preparing a "Crimea type" referendum according to the Donetsk-based Ostrov news agency which reported on Wednesday. Leaders of the self-proclaimed "Donetsk People's Republic" are planning to hold a referendum on seceding from Ukraine and joining Russia.


Hopefully Putin will not send in the tea boys to delay this process!

I really doubt Putin would accept Donetsk into Russia, unless they got some additional strategic areas. What the "rebels" have now isn't really worth it (more EU sanctions).

I don't follow the logic, Donetsk will hold elections in-line with the rest of Ukraine on the 18th, and then secede from Ukraine just 2 weeks later?

Breaking news:

The Kerch Strait bridge (to supply Crimea) is ahead of schedule:



Until it's finished, Russia will provide supplies by air:

US sends F-22 fighter jets to Europe as part of Ukraine response, link
here

Whole situation is getting very risky, Russian economy is crashing and Putin maybe tempted to do something silly to retain his popularity

In a reminder of the Stalinist show trials in the 40's the Ukrainian film director Oleg Sentsov was sentenced by a Russian court to 20 years in prison.
His crime was delivering food to Ukrainian soldiers trapped in their bases by the Russian takeover of Crimea.

Of course Russian courts have no rights to prosecute people for crimes committed outside Russian territory.

Oleg claimed he was tortured and showed his bruises; the prosecution said these were from his enjoyment of sadomasochistic practices.

One bizarre moment during the trial was when one key prosecution witness, Gennady Afanasyev, refused to stand by his original testimony incriminating the two men, saying it had been extracted under duress.

Innocent verdicts are practically unknown in Russia because judges are rewarded on their number of guilty verdicts.

Symbolic but important aws it Shows the USA committment to the East European wing of NATO

http://www.forbes.com/sites/paulrode...-east-ukraine/

Russia accidentally released info regarding death and invalid compensation payments for Russian soldiers killed and injured in Ukraine up until Feb.1, 2015: 2,000 dead and 3,200 invalids.

Hardware (weapons) for the Ukraine must have cost a lot more; must be a sub category for that somewhere - interesting to know how many Buks were consumed?

It looks like there must be pressure on the Russian government to provide support for the soldiers sent to fight in Ukraine. However, since Putin can't officially admit it, he's got to make a "shell" company to provide the benefits to the "volunteer" soldiers.

However admitting publicly that 50,000 Russians have fought in Ukraine kind of takes away from the myth of the conflict being a "Civil war" and finally admits that it's a Russia/Ukraine war.

Ukraine has released their most detailed info about the Russian-backed fighters in Ukraine to date: estimated 40,000 fighters, estimated 60% Russians and 40% locals, commanded by a Russian 3-star General on the Russian side of the border, and two 1-star Generals inside Ukraine:

http://uk.businessinsider.com/ukrain...15-8?r=US&IR=T

More business as usual in Kiev (Oleg Lyashko & Igor Mosiychuk in the 'corruption' spotlight this time)…

2 Ukrainian ultra-radical MPs face investigation for kidnappings, torture

Thanks, good to know the Ukrainians are prosecuting corruption even at the level of MPs; now we just need the Russians to do the same.