The crash site in Donetsk oblast So this is where we have got to after 101 days since Russia began its destabilisation of Ukraine – to a place that probably even Putin and his most neo-nationalist advisers would not have desired: a 15km-wide crash site containing the bodies of 298 civilian, non-Ukrainian passengers and crew, […]
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D-Day plus Geneva: what did you expect? Putin’s not giving an inch
“Men in green” allegedly in Odessa, south-west Ukraine, evening of 18 April Many people have written worthwhile pieces this week about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The daily coverage has been good on Twitter and improving in conventional media; we have had insights into the shape of this conflict that we have not had […]
D-Day plus 7: the invasion of Ukraine has already taken place
London, 14 April 2014 The weekend again. Always the weekend. From the first takeovers of airfields in Crimea on 1-2 March to the first “pro-Russian” assaults a week ago in Kharkiv, Donetsk and Luhansk. This weekend it was the turn of Slavyansk, Kramatorsk and smaller cities in their vicinity, important because they represent deeper […]
D-Day plus 1: will Europe stand up for its ideals in Ukraine or not?
“Pro-Russian” protesters in Luhansk, 8 April Tonight Europe’s relations with Russia are again at a height of tension as a result of Russian provocations in east Ukraine. Of that there is little doubt, despite the BBC’s and other western news organisations’ bland descriptions of events as “pro-Russian protests”. Destabilisation phase 2 – President Putin’s pretext for […]
Ukraine’s D-for-Destabilisation-Day
A “pro-Russian” activist’s peaceful protest equipment, 7 April 7 April 2014 I’ll keep this brief. As the French novelist André Gide said 100 years ago, “Everything that needed to be said has already been said.” Yet because nobody is listening, some things have to be re-said. So Ukraine is on the move again, after a […]
“Perhaps they’ll listen now”
Russian troops in Crimea This is not my usual blog post. Instead it’s in the form of a letter that I sent to the UK Foreign Secretary, William Hague, today, 23 March. I wrote the letter because I want to shed some light on the vast dangers and risks of the next stage of the […]
Time for more than sanctions and words
London, 17 March 2014 It is 24 hours since the “result” of the referendum in Crimea. There was no surprise there, and today the region was recognised as independent by the Russian state. The result in Brussels and Washington and London has been somewhat different. The consequence of everything Western politicians have said […]
Timid western politics won’t wash with Putin
New Statesman, 14-20 March 2014 The first Ukrainian I met was called Peter. On my first visit to Kyiv, exactly 20 years ago, Peter introduced himself to me in front of the monument to the 150,000 massacred Jews of Babi Yar. He was a retired accountant from Croydon, but had been born outside Kharkiv, […]
Rebirth of a nation
Bullied and humiliated by Russia, seen as a strategic buffer by the US, Ukraine is riven by corruption and deeply divided. Can it rise and free itself?
