Today two dead bodies, showing signals of torture, were found near Slovyansk. One of them was identified as Volodymyr Rybak, a missing deputy of the Horlivka City Council and a member of the Batkivshchyna Party. He was kidnapped several days ago.
Turchynov (Ukraine’s acting president) responded
by renewing the anti-terrorism campaign in that part of a country, after the
break in the operations for the Easter holidays. Many voices of the Ukrainian
public see the anti-terrorism strategy as largely ineffective at countering
violent separatism in Ukraine.
But what is Ukraine to do? The Ukrainian
military is no match to the Russians. Furthermore, any aggression from the
Ukrainian government will be seen as justification for outright Russian
military intervention.
Last Thursday, Putin made clear that he
already has the authority from his government to launch an attack to ‘protect
Russian speakers’ in eastern Ukraine. The torturing, kidnappings,
hostage-taking, media fear-mongering and silencing of opposition in Crimea are
all provocations pushing and probing the Ukrainian government to respond and
thus to justify a Russian attack.
Meanwhile, support for the pro-Russian
separatists is not as widespread as (Russian) media claim. Slovyansk mayor
Nelya Shtepa, first tried to gain the sympathy of separatists and even openly
voiced her support. Now Shtepa has been overthrown and the power in the city is
clearly usurped by ‘separatists’ who seem unlikely to engage in any
negotiations. They are as critical of the Party of Regions as they are of Kyiv.
The insignia seen
on a number of the gunmen in Slovyansk is ‘Terek Wolf Company’, a detachment of
emigre Cossacks who fought for Nazi Germany during the Second World War. While
it’s clear that military veterans and Russian ‘tourists’ have been actively involved
in Donetsk region, allegedly the presence of Registered
Cossacks of the Russian Federation (who enjoy financial and other support from
the Russian government) connects Russia officially to the on-going
crisis.
Seven villages in the Donetsk region have
expressed interest in leaving the ‘oblast’ and joining the Dnipropetrovsk
Region (this means recognising a different, non-seperatist/non-conflicted,
regional government etc). The village councils are planning a referendum.
Also, currently most of the attention and
violence is centred in Slovyansk.
This is a small city close to the border with Russia. It seems Russian
intervention and their tactics of ‘disguised warfare’ are concentrated here
because the attempts to spark uprisings in bigger cities such as Luhansk,
Kharkiv and Odessa failed. People are not in support of separatism, and neither
are the Ukrainian oligarchs.
Interestingly,
the warfare and violence has escalated in the last two days at the same time
that Joe Biden visits Ukraine. Does this provide ‘ammunition’ to anti-US
sentiment and critiques of foreign intervention in Ukraine? It also shines the
light on Ukraine’s very limited choices:
a)
allowing Russia to continue trampling all over them, politically, economically
and physically, or
b)
entering into IMF/international loan agreements with very strong conditions.
Both options are
harmful to Ukrainians. Ukraine standing alone on it’s own now is not an option.
Russia, the US and the global economic system, long ago made independence for
Ukraine impossible.
For now, the
overt violence continues. A community activist and Kobzar, Vasy Liutyi, was
severely beaten, arrested and tortured. He was the leader of the meeting ‘For a
United Ukraine’ in the town of Rubizhne in Luhansk region. (A Kobzar has a long tradition and history within Ukrainian culture.
Kobzars are bards who preserved oral history and culture through their songs).
Excerpt from blog
post (Mychailo Wynnyckyj,
Kyiv):
If the Maidan was about the emergence of a new dominant social
paradigm – one where (perhaps idealistically, as with any ideology) the “good”
is defined as respect for Persons and their inter-relations, and the “evil” is
represented by a de-personalized system – then the current conflict between the
West and Russia (in which Ukraine is the battleground, but not itself an actor)
seems to have little to do with this Revolution. The diplomatic war between
Russia and the West is a battle of systems, not Persons.
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