6 April 2014

Separatist demonstrations in Donetsk, Kharkiv and Luhansk resulted in the seizure of Donetsk and Kharkiv Regional State Administrations, the governor’s office in Kharkiv, and the seizure of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) office in Luhansk.

In Donetsk, a group of 200 masked men used stun grenades against the police before entering the regional Parliament, removing Ukrainian flags, announcing the dissolution of local Parliament. They proclaimed that they are calling for assistance from Russia. The police did not intervene, and some claim that some police sided with the demonstrators.

Journalists are being forced to leave the area of clashes in Donetsk, except for a group of Russian journalists who had apparently arrived with masked men. Russian TV, especially Russia 24, broadcasts are using old videos that show the square filled with protesters and claim that 10,000 demonstrators took the building after 4 weeks of non-stop demonstration, and that ‘CIA and NATO teams unsuccessfully tried to suppress the movement.’ There is no indication that NATO or CIA are involved, and neither is there indication that the movement was being suppressed such that it was finally able to triumph today. Instead, tensions have been on-going and, if anything, the pro-Russian groups appear to have more funding than those supporting Ukrainian unity. But even these kinds of clear divisions of Ukrainian-unity versus Russian seperatism are difficult to maintain. Many Ukrainians are Russian speakers, with family links in Russia, Ukraine, and other former-Soviet nations. Family members are even divided and disagree about whether to support the pro-Russian groups and believe the fear-mongering that Kyiv is ‘overrun by fascists’, or have faith in unity and a government tasked with reconfiguring politics.

A father speaking about Feb 18-20th^th in Maidan: ‘My son, Ystymchyk, cared about those around him in the barricade. So that they would not be afraid, he told them that when they are in danger, to yell, “the sky is falling!”. These words will always remain in my eyes, because the sky did fall on him. But he will keep it for us. He and the ‘Heavenly Hundred’. These forces now protect Ukraine.’