Barnsley wrote:Sergei82 wrote:"Good" (?) and very fresh news (can't find English articles online yet - only Russian and Ukrainian) - 10 Russian militants were shot dead on their block-post in Donetsk. 3 unidentified men approached them in a car and using machine guns point blank executed every one of them. After that they just left in their car. 1st indication that Donetsk is NOT Crimea. I bet, Putin does not expect that!
Do you think this is going to end it a full on war, as in official troops , or will this plain clothed war continue as the norm?
I dun expect anything. Obviously the whole world was not prepared to face someone who will outright deny reality like Putin. Nobody knows how to deal with it.
I know for sure: the whole middle and working class in Donetsk region is against joining any other country and also can't make sense out of calling for referendum and federalisation and waving Russian flag at the same time (???). More logical was pretend they "wanted" referendum, didn't get it, now they want Russia, but it started like a soup of some incoherent nonsensical demands. Those who support Russia are:
1) jobless and marginals (past criminals etc) - they get paid,
2) old people who lived for long in USSR, doesn't like current Ukrainian economy, think that Russia will solve all their problems - they're promised much higher pensions if they join Russia,
3) some Ukrainian police (aside from patriots) - Russia is a highly militarised country (despite their calling Ukrainian interim government to be military junta?), average salary for a soldier or a police officer is abt 4 times higher than in Ukraine + expenses for army in Russia 100 bln usd a year against hardly 1 bln usd a year in Ukraine (nobody in Ukraine ever believed anything threatens the country),
4) non locals: Russian soldiers and intelligence officers under cover (even though they do not hide it anymore - only official Russian position in UN is denial), some other Russian "tourists" influenced by Russian propaganda, and MOST violent (!!!): Russian cossacks! Last once can be recognized by funny hat made of sheep - they do not consider Ukraine to exist at all, Ukraine to be a nation, Ukrainian language to be a separate language (dialect of uneducated Russian peasants). Cossacks are totally out of control of anybody - they wreaked havoc in Crimea, they've arrived in Donetsk now.