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> short lead time that russia may try to militarily annex eastern ukraine was rather obvious for many years. Ukraine sits between NATO and russia. A majority o

> short lead time that russia may try to militarily annex eastern ukraine was rather obvious for many years. Ukraine sits between NATO and russia. A majority of its population had been in favor of joining the former. The eastern ukraine holds large reserves of natural resources and pro-russian separatists. The later are used as a casus belli for an ethno-nationalist anschluss. Lastly it is not like the 2014 war truly ever ended: there had been 410.000 cease fire violation in 2017 alone, for example.

pimpampum 4y ago
They are "autonomists" not "separatists", what they were asking for and agreed on the two Minsk accords was "autonomy" not "independence". There's certain intentionality in painting them as separatists.
- aordano 4y ago
  Geniune question: ¿Is there any difference in practice between "autonomy" and "se paration" in the context of governance here?
- Jon_Lowtek 4y ago
  in a year the LPR and DNR will be seperated from ukraine and a part of Russia. This annexation has been planned and prepared for a long time. I agree that such conflicts are never easy and there are many small factions with different goals and beliefs on the ground, but claiming this is about autonomy is part of their casus belli: a construct in which the russian ethno-nationalists pretend they didn't ask for much and got nothing but abuse. In actuality the leadership of the LPR and DNR removed ukrainian both as an official language and from their schools curriculum years ago and started paying pensions in rubles. They advertised their plans very clearly and loudly, calling their intermediate construct "Новороссия" - new russia. It is like calling western czech "Sudetendeutschland". Their goal is not autonomy but unification with russia. Always has been. So calling them seperatists is quite fitting. But i agree the term may only describe a minority in the region, not the general population.

pimpampum 4y ago

They are "autonomists" not "separatists", what they were asking for and agreed on the two Minsk accords was "autonomy" not "independence". There's certain intentionality in painting them as separatists.

aordano 4y ago
Geniune question: ¿Is there any difference in practice between "autonomy" and "se paration" in the context of governance here?
Jon_Lowtek 4y ago
in a year the LPR and DNR will be seperated from ukraine and a part of Russia. This annexation has been planned and prepared for a long time. I agree that such conflicts are never easy and there are many small factions with different goals and beliefs on the ground, but claiming this is about autonomy is part of their casus belli: a construct in which the russian ethno-nationalists pretend they didn't ask for much and got nothing but abuse. In actuality the leadership of the LPR and DNR removed ukrainian both as an official language and from their schools curriculum years ago and started paying pensions in rubles. They advertised their plans very clearly and loudly, calling their intermediate construct "Новороссия" - new russia. It is like calling western czech "Sudetendeutschland". Their goal is not autonomy but unification with russia. Always has been. So calling them seperatists is quite fitting. But i agree the term may only describe a minority in the region, not the general population.