It’s eerie that just a couple hours after I wrote yesterday’s post, Putin took his next step.
Putin clearly laid out his plans in late March, using ousted president Viktor Yanukovych to deliver his message to Ukrainians: “Demand a referendum on the status of each region within Ukraine”.
This is not going to be a “traditional” war, not even a “modern” war. Putin is waging his war on Ukraine one region at a time, using not a regular army of soldiers to invade, but using his “army” of paid provocateurs and bandits. Just as he almost never speaks himself to the public, famously giving one marathon press conference a year and instead delivering his messages via mouthpieces like Yanukovych or his more preferred frontman Dmitri Kiselev, he is dressing up his aggression against Ukraine in separatists’ clothes, bogus referendum to join Russia, and “pleas for help” from self-declared officials”. This was exactly the scenario he played out in Crimea, and now he’s doing it in eastern Ukraine.
Some articles I meant to share yesterday:
Putin’s Brain: Alexander Dugin and the Philosophy Behind Putin’s Invasion of Crimea
Anka in Kyiv 