The Donetsk steel factory is one of the industrial facilities of the Donbas "republics" which suffer from severed economic ties with Ukraine proper. Photo: Ilia Reznik
Spiegel Online: Pro-Russian Separatists Harden Split from Ukraine
After nationalizing businesses, pro-Russian separatists have proclaimed their own state in eastern Ukraine, calling it "Little Russia." Tens of thousands of residents in the region are now jobless.
The city of Yenakiieve, northeast of Donetsk, was founded more than a century ago around a steel mill. Some 10,000 people work at the steel mill, and the company that owns it operates the most modern rolling mill in Ukraine. But as of March, the mill became a thing of the past.
On the morning of March 1, armed men arrived at the plant, demanding that management submit to the regime of the "Donetsk People's Republic." If they refused, the men said, "legal and physical measures" would be taken against management and employees. What seemed like a farce at first would prove to be a major political move. In doing so, the pro-Russian separatists in the eastern Ukrainian People's Republics of Donetsk and Luhansk have divided the country even further.
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WNU Editor: When Ukrainian nationalists blocked trade between Ukraine and the separatist regions .... I said to myself that this was not going to end well. This would only harden the separatist cause, and what is worse .... alienate what ever pro-Ukrainian sentiment or hope of reunification that was left in the region. There are now tens of thousands of men out of work, and with no work available they are now joining the militias or are staying at home. The Ukraine mess has just gotten messier.
Putin could halt these separtists as quid pro quo to US ending support in Syria.
ReplyDeleteI'm afraid he's too deep and too close to his border to do anything.
Putin cannot be a hero if US Congress interferes with new sanctions.
Looks like a dead lock to me.