On The Agenda

"The world is watching with great concern as Russia positions its military in a way that could lead to further incursions to southern and eastern Ukraine. [The sanctions] will not only have a significant impact on the Russian economy but could also be disruptive to the global economy. However, Russia must know that further escalation will only isolate it further from the international community."
U.S. President Barack Obama

President Barack Obama makes a statement on Ukraine on Thursday, March 20, 2014, on the South Lawn at the White House in Washington before departing for Florida. President Barack Obama said the US is levying a new round of economic sanctions on individuals in Russia, both inside and outside the government, in retaliation for the Kremlin’s actions in Ukraine. AP PHOTO/CHARLES DHARAPAK

"It is time for the president to tell the nation why a co-operative world order is in jeopardy due to Russia's unilateral actions. I think there is a spirit in Putin's speech that is vengeful and triumphalist at the same time and committed to this notion of a new union ... an empire with a capital in Moscow."
Former U.S. national security adviser Zbigniew Brzezinskin

Russia has taken steps to close the border to Ukrainian goods. Ukraine's largest trading partner has always been Russia, and now, no more, and for how long and how deeply will that bite? With Kyiv's recent alignment with the European Union through an agreement led by the new interim government will trade with EU countries take up the slack and give Ukraine's plunged economy some breathing room for recovery?

Journalists and activists have been targeted by pro-Russia thugs in Crimea, making it abundantly clear to anyone representing the world in the West that they and their criminally biased reporting are not welcome, and they'd do best to decamp, perhaps with a bit of roughing up to set them on their way. "We have seen a serious worsening of the human rights situation in Crimea", stated a White House official.

Tatar homes have been marked to identify them as places where Muslims live in Crimea; a place where Tatar Muslims once exclusively lived before, historically. Under Soviet rule, Russians were urged to flood the peninsula and the Tatars were exiled. The pro-Russian movement in Donetsk along with other industrialized cities near the border are on the edge of expectation. Though Vladimir Putin announced he had no wish to take east Ukraine, hopes are high there that he will.

Jessica Rinaldi/globe staff

Pro-Russian protesters chanted outside of the Donetsk Prosecutors Building before storming into it

Russian flags and even old Soviet flags are sited in those cities demonstrating the fond hopes of those Ukrainians of Russian heritage being clasped once again to the bosom of Mother Russia. Those showing up to protest represent the offspring of Russians who migrated to the Donbass area to work in the coal industry, which still generates most of Ukraine's GDP. Celebrating Crimea's union with Russia, they would appreciate a little bit of that for themselves.

They take comfort and confidence in the fact that thousands of Russian soldiers remain camped some 80 kilometres from Ukraine. Any time President Putin makes up his mind, those troops could mass over the border in no time at all. Lugansk, Kharkiv and Dnipropetrovsk where anti-Ukrainian protests have taken place, are all prepared to welcome those troops, should they finally make the move, on order from the Kremlin.

Pro Russian protesters rallied in Donesk -- Jessica Rinaldi/globe staff

It's an issue high on the agenda when the G7 leaders convene their emergency summit in The Hague on Monday. How best to countenance that possibility, how best to comport themselves in view of Crimea's fait accompli.

The wealthy Ukrainian businessmen elevated to governorships over the past several weeks by Kyiv's acting government have managed to stabilize things in the east, but there will be some incentive in store for them to recognize their new political status, fattening their bottom lines.

Donetsk's new governor, Sergei Taruta, a billionaire, demands greater autonomy from the capital. He has bitterly denounced Russia for flooding the area with Russians in an effort to create problems in the east; a provocation, geared to enabling the Kremlin to justify ordering its troops to a further invasion and entirely for the purpose of protecting ethnic Russians.