Saturday, February 22, 2014

Ukraine – events happening too fast to keep up with...

Ukraine – events happening too fast to keep up with...  It appears that in the past 24 hours, a peace agreement was signed, a truce immediately violated, Parliament restored the 2004 Constitution and voted to release the former Prime Minister (Yulia Tymoshenko), police and military reportedly “defected” to the protesters, current President Viktor Yanukovych fled the capital of Kiev, the Parliament voted to remove Yanokovych, Tymoshenko is released and is heading for Independence Square, and demonstrators took over the entire city of Kiev, including all government offices.  Yanokovych vows to remain in the country and in power, calling the demonstrators “bandits”, as he has for the past three months.

After months of sometimes-bloody conflict, this is quite an amazingly rapid progression.  So far as I can tell, it's all good news, too – but it's certainly not over yet.  Yanokovych could conceivably lean on Putin to supply the muscle needed to restore himself to power.  Internal forces may yet be able to do the same.  I have no idea how it's going to end up, but it looks hopeful right at the moment...

Some relevant reading for you here, here, and here... 

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