Eviscerating Ukraine

"The People's Republic of Donetsk is founded on the administrative boundaries of Donetsk Region. The decision will come into force after holding a referendum."
Leader of new People's Republic of Donetsk committee 

A masked man stands atop of a barricade at the regional administration building in Donetsk, Ukraine, Tuesday. US officials say Russia is fomenting unrest in eastern Ukraine.

Andrey Basevich/AP

“Believe me, I know it must have been hard to stand idly by and do nothing as a foreign military invaded one of your allies. But you didn’t really make much of a fuss over any of it, and I couldn’t be more grateful for that. Obama, you're so cool.”                   Vladimir Putin as (satirically) imagined by The Onion

"An anti-Ukrainian plan is being put into operation ... under which foreign troops will cross the border and seize the territory of the country."
"We will not allow this."
Acting Ukraine Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk

Regional officials in Donetsk, Kharkiv and Luhansk provinces in eastern Ukraine have appealed to Kyiv to intervene to prevent the dismemberment of their country. Activists, many of whom are claimed to be foreign (read Russian) paid provocateurs seized control of public buildings on Sunday night, calling for Russian support for their uprising. Waiting for Ukrainian security forces to move in, to indulge in a little bit of a scuffle that can be interpreted as committing violence against Russians.

At which point, the troops that Moscow has assembled at the border can handily move in to prevent violence against their own. The Pro-Russian activists in the city of Donetsk have announced the formation of the independent Donetsk People's Republic, calling for a referendum on secession of the region bordering Russia -- in tandem with the city of Kharkiv where a "sovereign Kharkiv People's Republic" has been declared -- to be held on May 11.

All very neat and tidy, well organized and exercising an option that very recent history has informed that is certain to conclude with stunningly swift success. Broadcast live by Russian state television, about 120 activists of the 'People's Republic of Donetsk' voted at a meeting in the regional assembly building, to establish a breakaway state subject to a public vote. Wonderful bit of orchestration, and all of it completely spontaneous. Requiring no Russian direction, let alone involvement.

An appeal was made directly to Vladimir Putin for assistance, and how could that courageous defender of the Russian weal conceivably demur? Standing before a Russian flag in the regional assembly chamber a bearded representative announced that his committee intends to ask Moscow to forward a "peacekeeping contingent", should Kyiv resort, as expected, to forceful violence, committing mayhem on poor Russians who happen to be living as Ukrainian citizens in Ukraine.

Police in Kharkiv watched as pro-Russian activists circled members of the far-right Pravy Sektor group, notorious for the role they played in the Maidan uprising. The activists outnumbering the Pravy Sektor group, forced them to crawl on hands and knees while a crowd chanted derisory taunts. This is fair play, humiliating the enemy, and does not represent grounds for reprisals of any kind, of course.

According to both Ukrainian and NATO officials, large well-armed and -tutored Russian troops were on standby close to the border, representing a clear threat of intervention on behalf of the demonstrators. Ukraine's acting president, Oleksander Turchinov, declared in a televised address that Russia was planning to repeat "The Crimea Scenario", promising in return "anti-terrorist measures" would be deployed in response.

The activists who occupied the Donetsk government building blocked the entrance with two-metre high barricades of car tires lined with razor wire. Inside, dozens of people, most wearing balaclavas so typically beloved of thugs, carrying clubs, stood about in excitable conspiratorial groups. The Donetsk, Kharkiv and Luhansk regions have a combined population of almost ten million out of the country's 46 million.

The geographic area of east Ukraine represents the bulk of the country's industrial output. First they came for the military and naval bases, then they came for the industrial areas and then they looked toward the agricultural sector. Until there was nothing left of the country which could be celebrated as a whole, independent and proud nation, according to an imagined tale of unimaginable national catastrophe.