23 March 2014

Thousands of people rallied in Maidan today, a march for Ukraine’s territorial integrity and against Russian invasion. The crowd unveiled a huge Crimea Tatar flag blended with a Ukrainian flag. There were also demonstrations in support of a united Ukraine in Luhansk (Eastern Ukraine), and ongoing rallies on both ‘sides’ in Donetsk, Kharkiv and Odessa. Anti-Kyiv rhetoric continues to claim that the new government is made up of ‘fascist thugs’.   

As aggression and tensions between Pro-Russian ‘self-defense’ groups and Ukrainian supporters continue in the East, the far-right Right Sector group also seems to be gaining attention. Also, Ukrainian military officers in Crimea and in the East are increasingly voicing concern over a lack of resources/funding and attention from the government in Kyiv.

NATO's top military commander stated concern that Russia’s presence in Eastern Ukraine posed a threat to Moldova's mainly Russian-speaking separatist Transdniestria region. German Defense Minister called for greater NATO backing of the Baltic states.

According to Russian Ministry of Defense, the Russian flag now flies over 189 Ukrainian military bases. Meanwhile, Sevastopol’s naval college as a whole refused to take the oath of invaders. Lyceum students refused to lower the Ukrainian flag.

Arseniy Yatsenyuk (Ukrainian Prime Minister) held an emergency meeting of Cabinet of Ministers today to work on new laws to stabilize the situation and reduce corruption. He stated the three main tasks of the government now are fighting "corruption, illegal weapons and thuggery”. For the first time in Ukraine, they propose to introduce public accountability in the sales of state assets and in the issuance of state contracts. Also, they discussed a plan to settle around 23,000 refugees from Crimea in up to 17 oblasts of Ukraine that are fleeing Russia’s annexation of the region.