Update with Ukraine’s take: SEPARATIST ACTION IN EAST UKRAINE SHOWS “SECOND STAGE OF RUSSIAN SPECIAL OPERATIONS AGAINST UKRAINE” IS UNDERWAY-UKRAINIAN ACTING PRESIDENT – RTRS
Less than a month after the Crimean referendum which pulled the region away from Ukraine and ceded it to Russia, another east Ukraine regional city, Donetsk, has just declared its independence from Kiev following the previously reported mini coup yesterday in which pro-Russia activists seized the government building in the city, as well as the other two regional capitals. Specifically, as RT reports, today at 12:20 local time, a session of the people’s Council of Donbass (Donetsk region) took place in the main hall of the Regional Council and without the police (whose allegiance to Kiev also appears to be non-existent) intervening, unanimously voted on a declaration to form a new independent state: the People’s Republic of Donetsk.
Sure enough, promptly thereafter the Council of the new republic issued an address to Russian President Vladimir Putin, asking for deployment of a temporary peacekeeping force to the region. Just like Crimea.
And so another city pulls away from Ukraine and gives Russia the go ahead to create a toehold in East Ukraine, just according to Putin’s plan.
