2014 Ukrainian Maidan Revolt: News, Views, Photos & Videos

Status
Not open for further replies.

SampanViking

The Capitalist
Staff member
Super Moderator
VIP Professional
Registered Member
Russian Media is reporting that Mr Putin respects the result of the referendums yesterday. This is advance of both regions making their official results announcements, but I would guess that Mr Putin will for the time being stay with respecting and not go all the way to recognise straight away.

This is due to what are clearly still ongoing moves with the OCSE to prepare their roadmap for dialogue and a diplomatic solution. The nuances are that Moscow will use its recognition as a negotiation position against Kiev in the first instance and ensure that Kiev "respects" the vote in terms of accepting a more Federal structure, which Moscow will undoubtedly now say exists on the ground.

The longer Moscow does not "recognise" the result, the more optimism for diplomacy. If recognition comes shortly, then diplomacy will be shown to be stalled.

On the ground, the Donbass Regions are declaring themselves as no longer under the control of Kiev and Fully Autonomous in all practical terms, but I suspect stopping short of declaring full independence just yet. Any decision regarding the resultant legal status of yesterdays referendum is to be decided by the result of the second, due for next weekend. The caveat to this will be a marked deterioration in the security situation, in which case the rebels will simply see no point in observing niceties in a diplomatic vacuum and effective state of war.

This brings us to the other interesting question, regarding those members of the Ukraine military, that come from the Donbass regions. In Crimea we saw many personnel stay true to their oaths of allegiance (albeit passively) until the vote was over and the Secession to Russia complete, at which point they acknowledged they were no longer Ukrainian citizens but Russian.
Will a similar process occour in the East? Many Ukrainian regulars have proved to very unwilling to do more than deploy in the region and so the question as to how many Donbass natives will now no longer regard themselves as Ukrainian and no longer bound as serving members of its military, becomes moot. It becomes more interesting as you move up the officer chain.
 

delft

Brigadier
This morning I heard the foreign affairs editor of my Dutch newspaper reporting on my favorite broadcaster BNR on the referenda in Eastern Ukraine. He said that the conduct of the referenda was far from perfect but that there was no doubt that the majority of the people were in favor of independence. The BBC website still shows the result of a Pew investigation of several weeks ago that showed 70% of the people in the East in favor of staying within Ukraine. That might be because this is the US based organisation but also the violence used by the Kiev regime in the last few weeks will have changed the minds of many people. I think the regime is using armed forces because it is politically too weak to reach an solution acceptable for the majority of the Ukraine. After all if it were strong enough it could have done without the support of the people who last month celebrated the setting up of the 14. Waffen-Grenadier-Division der SS (galizische Nr. 1) 71 years ago.
 

Miragedriver

Brigadier
Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!


MOSCOW, May 12 (RIA Novosti) – Russian President Vladimir Putin will formulate his opinion towards the referendums in two southeastern Ukrainian regions held on Sunday after their official results are made public, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told the Kommersant newspaper.


“It is difficult to forecast,” Peskov told the newspaper.


Putin had urged pro-federalization activists to put off the referendum to ensure the start of national dialog to resolve the ongoing crisis in the country, but the vote in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions was held as scheduled on Sunday.


Asked whether Putin’s position would be affected by this decision to hold the referendum, Peskov said that the Russian president “did not request but gave such a recommendation.”
 
Is this freaking true?! Found on
Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!

Rapid Fire | Monday, May 12, 2014, 15:50 UTC (about 2 hours ago)
France Sticks to Mistral Deal While Separatist Push Continues in Eastern Ukraine
says
French President Hollande confirmed that for now the Mistral contract with Russia is still being fulfilled
and gives link in French:
Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!

(I don't know any French)
At about lunchtime I noticed the information to the same effect on some Polish server, but it said it was based on an anonymous source from the Élysée Palace so I ignored -- but what if that source was the French President heheh
 

Mr T

Senior Member
He said that the conduct of the referenda was far from perfect but that there was no doubt that the majority of the people were in favor of independence.

How can he take that view when it is impossible to know exactly what people were voting for, given the question posed was so vague, and there has been no independent monitoring? It sounds like he's either horribly biased or woefully ignorant.

delft, could you tell me the name of this Dutch newspaper?

I think the regime is using armed forces because it is politically too weak to reach an solution acceptable for the majority of the Ukraine.

I think the government is using the military because parts of Ukraine have been taken over by hostile forces. I don't think the majority of Ukrainians think that's an acceptable state of affairs.

Re the Pew poll, it was published less than a week ago and appears to have covered Ukraine as a whole.
 
Last edited:

delft

Brigadier
How can he take that view when it is impossible to know exactly what people were voting for, given the question posed was so vague, and there has been no independent monitoring? It sounds like he's either horribly biased or woefully ignorant.

delft, could you tell me the name of this Dutch newspaper?



I think the government is using the military because parts of Ukraine have been taken over by hostile forces. I don't think the majority of Ukrainians think that's an acceptable state of affairs.

Re the Pew poll, it was published less than a week ago and appears to have covered Ukraine as a whole.
My newspaper is NRC. This man was many years its correspondent in Moscow and speaks Russian very well. He is now head of the international news section but apparently send himself on this assignment because a new correspondent in Moscow has not yet been found.
I think very many Ukrainians don't see the current regime as acceptable. Why else would it need to accept support from right wing extremists?
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top