(Thank you for your response.
OK. With one proviso. Since things are changing by the minute, put the time and date I wrote it (4:22 am 2/27/14 my time (Donetsk) -- 6:22 pm 2/26/14 your time CST (US)).)
Since November of last year, I have been monitoring the Ukraine situation with deep interest and concern, especially the last three weeks plus.
There have been three modes of information source available which I utilized to keep current with events.
First, of course, are numerous relatives, friends and acquaintances "on the ground" in various parts of the country who are experiencing first hand what is transpiring.
Additionally, thanks to the internet, there are various "news" outlets (TV, radio, print and websites) both in Ukraine and other parts of Europe which supply needed information. However, you have to know which ones because of extreme bias. Out of the United States, about the only reliable entity is Fox News. And I can't leave out the various bloggers and tweeters.
Then there are (were) a couple live web cams which showed overall panoramas of Maidan Nezalezhnosti (Independence Square) and Mariyinsky Park (Constitution Square), both in Kiev, 24 hours a day showing all that was happening.
While most of the coverage concerns the actions in Kiev, protests and demonstrations were occurring all over Ukraine, including Donetsk.
Of all those in Ukraine I worry about, the three you are most aware of are my grandparents in Kiev, and AK in Donetsk.
So what is this all about ?? It is about alignment, personal freedom, political and economic corruption, and social degeneration.
Of everybody involved, there are five names which you should focus upon: (Ex) President Viktor Yanukovych, former president Yulia Tymoshenko,
Minister of Internal Affairs Vitaliy Zakharchenko, Oleksandr Turchynov, speaker of the Parliament, and
Vitali Klitschko, leader of the Ukrainian Democratic Alliance for Reform. (If Vitali Klitschko's name sounds familiar, he just recently retired as the World Heavyweight Boxing Champion.)
The beginning of all this actually goes back to the fall of the Soviet Union. Then the Orange Revolution of 2004. However, this is no time for a history lesson.
Alignment. The question: Should Ukraine associate itself (economically, socially and politically) with the "European Union" and the West, or with Russia ?? A large majority of Ukrainians chose Europe and the West, as most still remember its long occupation and suppression by the USSR. Through the democratic process, an agreement (contract) was passed stating Ukraine would join the EU. Appeared everything was settled, however, President Yanukovych (long known as a puppet of Russia's president Putin) at the last minute discarded the agreement in favor of aligning with Russia.
Personal Freedom. Though Ukraine was no longer under the thumb of the USSR, government control had steadily crept back into people's lives under Yanukovych, mainly enforced by the Titushky,
Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), and the Berkut.
Political and Economic Corruption. I am ashamed to admit it, but Ukraine is one of the most corrupt nations of the world.
Social Degeneration. Because of the government's involvement and protection of organized crime, Ukraine has become the center of sexual trafficking, prostitution, child pornography, smuggling, and other activity.
Seeing all this unfolding before my eyes, I could not stay away. Fortunately, much has been resolved. Yanukovych has been removed from office. The Constitution has been restored to its prior status before he took power. Yulia Tymoshenko has been released from prison (she is the former Prime Minister and leader of the Orange Revolution who was imprisoned byYanukovych's courts on false charges), couple days ago the Berkut was disbanded, all USSR monuments have been destroyed, close to a hundred governmental officials have been arrested and charged for "organizing the killing of protesters, and again making Ukrainian the official language of the nation.
Euromaidan (anti-communist, pro European seizing of government buildings) "occupations" have taken place in most Oblasts.Yanukovych and several other officials are now fugitives. He and some others tried to escape by flying out of Donetsk, but were denied.
Donetsk is in the eastern part of the country. This eastern part is where the highest degree of Russian is spoken, though not necessarily supportive of Russia itself.
The Kharkiv Oblast (province north of Donetsk) declared "separation" from Ukraine. However, its governor (Mikhail Dobkin) and its city's mayor (Hennadiy Kernes) have fled to Russia.
In the south (Sevastopol and Simferopol) pro-Russian separatists and Crimean Tatars(with help from the Russian military) have held protests to secede. Russian soldiers have already been sighted in the Crimea.
There are still huge demonstrations all over Ukraine, especially here in the east. Thousands of protesters on both sides fought in Kharkiv and Donetsk just yesterday. But the main tension all over Ukraine is the uncertainty of what Putin will do. Rumors everywhere. Most believe he will invade (at least in the East first) as he is not likely to lose Ukraine. He did it in Georgia. We all know the USA will do nothing because Obama is weak, cowardly, inept and incompetent. All talk. Probably as corrupt asYanukovych. He is deemed more irrelevant than anything.
The Girl From Wales
