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The one map you need to understand Ukraine’s crisis
- randomafrican 13y agoOne quick fact: the root of the word Ukraine is a word meaning "border".
- clockworkelf 13y agoThe article fails to mention that Western technocrats like George Soros are actively and openly undermining the Ukraine government for many years now. For instance, he heavily supports and funds the so-called 'Open Society Foundations"
- saym 13y agoThis article helped me understand the conflict in ways I hadn't before. My constructive critique: The analogy of red states and blue states to Ukrainian language and Russian language regions doesn't fit entirely. A state is red or blue with 51% of the vote. these regions have a much larger gap between majority and minority opinion by region.
- BrandonMarc 13y agoMeh, the writer's trying weakly to draw a meaningful comparison between Ukranian politics and American politics ... and as you note, it doesn't work all that well anyway.
- bluekeybox 13y agoThe dividing line roughly corresponds to the spread of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth at its peak in the 1600s: http://www.conflicts.rem33.com/images/deut/EU1559.jpg http://www.conflicts.rem33.com/images/deut/EU1559.jpg In other words, one could argue that the root of the conflict is a cultural clash between Polonized Ukrainians vs Russified Ukrainians.
- Shtirlic 13y agoCorrect, during USSR era it was calm, but now started to burn again.
- bluekeybox 13y agoA little wrong to look that way though since (a) it was under USSR that the country got its current borders and shape on the map, and (b) the actual issue over which the conflict is going on is due to USSR-like foreign policy doctrine of Putin's Russia.
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- gpvos 13y agoThis difference between west and east Ukraine is well-known and has been in the news in Europe a lot already in previous years.
- Pxtl 13y agoYeah, as a Canadian, once you get a linguistic gap it really changes the political nature of a country. I mean, English Canada has the typical left-right tug-of-war, with the right going to the prairie provinces and the big cities of Toronto, Montreal, and Vancouver swinging left (the suburbs are the battleground)... but then you've got Quebec that's a completely separate game. They have their own political party that doesn't run candidates outside of Quebec. When Canada was formed, there were four political parties - the English left/right and the French left/right. A linguistic gap completely changes the political landscape, at a level that doesn't exist in purely-Anglophonic USA.
- BrandonMarc 13y agoCan the map tell me why this guy's wearing a pasta strainer for a hat? http://twitter.com/JohnPugh/status/426369689216745472/photo/1 http://twitter.com/JohnPugh/status/426369689216745472/photo/... The riot gear I understand. The other, not so much.
- nocoment 13y agoPlease be respectful of religious headgear. This man is clearly a Pastafarian.
- choonkeymoonkey 13y agoThe government illegaly passed a law banning civilians from wearing helmets, so that the protesters couldn't protect themselves from the batons of riot police. Ukrainians therefore started wearing metal pots on their head to mock these laws.
- adamt 13y agoThe government banned people from wearing any form of headgear (eg masks/blalaclavas) during protests. Some protestors have been wearing silly things in their heads as a form of humorous defiance.
- throwaway_yy2Di 13y agoI just looked it up, and it's pretty much the same law all over Europe. Oddly it's much harsher in e.g. Germany (top penalty, 1 year prison) than Ukraine (15 days). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-mask_laws https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-mask_laws (Not a commentary on Ukraine; just curiosity).
- brazzy 13y agoThe German law was introduced in 1985 by the conservative Kohl government; it was very controversial at the time but is not much discussed now, perhaps because police and courts are rather lenient in enforcing it. I've never heard of a case where it actually led to a prison sentence.
- guard-of-terra 13y agoThis map looks old. Recent maps show much wider area of protests and takeovers. http://cs310221.vk.me/v310221807/6c83/jB9ZgNkuxUA.jpg http://cs310221.vk.me/v310221807/6c83/jB9ZgNkuxUA.jpg Can't find translated one atm.
- gpvos 13y agoTry Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euromaidan#Protests_across_Ukraine https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euromaidan#Protests_across_Ukr...
- absherwin 13y agoImagine that the President of this divided country allocated four times as much spending per capita to his political base and his son had earned hundreds of millions during his time in office. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viktor_Yanukovych#Consolidation_of_family_power http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viktor_Yanukovych#Consolidation...
- lostlogin 13y agoForeigners here, and Bush junior immediately came to mind. It isn't a straight parallel, but the pork was there, and the cronies were paid.
- elnate 13y agoIf my history included the Holodomor, I'd be shy of associating with Russia too.
- oddx 13y agoActually regions harmed by mass famine in 32 and 33 are mostly pro-Russia, and most against-Russia regions weren't part of USSR at that time.
- elnate 13y agoI did not know that. Could it be that is because they were depopulated of Ukranians and enthic Russians were moved in to replace them?
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- egao1980 13y agoCheck that: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Ukraine http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Ukraine Basically South and East of Ukraine were not inhabited by Ukrainians, but colonized by Russian Empire - Odessa, Nikolayev, Crimea. And by the way, Holodomor advocates usually forget to mention that many more Russian and Kazakh people died during that famine and it was not specifically 'targeting' Ukrainians - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_famine_of_1932%E2%80%931933 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_famine_of_1932%E2%80%931...
- incosta 13y agoI guess this is the reason they use a Ukrainian word 'Holodomor' for it?
- choonkeymoonkey 13y agoThat doesn't make it less of a genocide, does it?
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- mikro2nd 13y agoOT: Hating on this website that hijacks my browser's "Back" keyboard binding to take me to an endless succession of articles of absolutely no interest to me.
- Sniffnoy 13y agoThis map is confusing; it uses three shades of blue, two of which represent land and one of which represents water. I had to stare at both the key and an ordinary map of Ukraine for a minute in order to process what I was seeing.
- YokoZar 13y agoThe text of the article says he won dark blue by 70%+, but the key in the map says by a 20% margin (which would imply 60-40). Which is it?
- nextw33k 13y agoI have seen elsewhere (I think it was Zimbabwe) that the president has to win 50% of the votes or it triggers a second round with just the winner and the runner up. The original author probably is talking about the president having that 50% + 20%.
- vacri 13y agoIn voting, that 20% is called a swing - it would take a swing of that much to lose the vote. The author's called it a margin here, but it's the same concept - it takes 20% of the vote to move to change the incumbent, not 40%. Assuming, of course, a two-party system.
- gcb0 13y agoThe confusing part is the &$@!# graphic designer used blue and light blue right next to light blue water. Genius. Simply genius.
- xiadzpl 13y agoThe parts where the heaviest protests take place correlate with the pre-WW II Polish borders: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curzon_Line http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curzon_Line Being from Poland I wish our politicians tried to use this situation as an opportunity to re-annex western part of Ukraine. Maybe not entire half of it, but f.eg. Lvov used to be a beautiful Polish city before the war.
- bombarolo 13y ago... and an Austrian city long before that
- solyanyk 13y ago... and Ukrainian (technically Ruthenian) city long before that. [1] So, xiadzpl, don't hold your breath. [2] 1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lviv#History http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lviv#History 2. http://http2.github.io/http2-spec/#GTFO http://http2.github.io/http2-spec/#GTFO
- gdy 13y agoJust like your country annexed part of Czechoslovakia at the beginning of WW2. Some people never learn.
- mohawk 13y agoYou cannot turn back the wheel of time.
- viraptor 13y agoSigh... that's a really stupid idea. And what else would you want to revert to what time exactly? Give Wrocław away? Maybe also the tri-city? And get some of the Turkey instead? Isn't the worst part of Polish history about other countries annexing parts of it when there's noone to protect it? Yet you propose to do exactly the same thing here.
- vdaniuk 13y agoThis is map is outdated, the situation is changing rapidly. There are now more than 10 government centers occupied by protesters. Mass protests are occurring nearly in all regions of Ukraine. BTW, good news! "Dictatorship laws" were repealed 5 minutes ago at the time of writing of this comment.
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- mathattack 13y agoThe maps were very oversimplified too. It's too bad this story is being under-reported. I think it's more than a "Red and blue states with different languages" situation. It could be a civil war, or national split, no?
- gcb0 13y agoAnd what was the red vs blue initially?
- vdaniuk 13y agoNo, no civil war possible. The reason is quite simple. Current government has support, but its very passive, while anti-government protestors are extremely active and self-organizing. It is really people vs. government, even if some support government.
- dschiptsov 13y agoRather one word - "pipelines".
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- JackFr 13y agoCan the "One map to ..." thing please end? It feels one step away fro "One weird to trick to ..."
- streptomycin 13y agoIt'll end when it stops getting more clicks than other types of titles. If anything, it'll probably become more common before that happens. You see it all over blogs like this one, but a lot of the traditional mainstream media hasn't caught on to this type of optimization. Just wait until every headline on the front page of the NY Times starts like this...
- twobits 13y ago"The one X you need to understand Y", written by Z. The one thing you actually need to understand is: How much do you trust Z? Who are they, what do they represent, what are their interests, what are their motives, ..? Generally, follow the money.
- doug1001 13y agoI have always wondered if Ukraine is really two countries. For instance, in the West (west of Kyiv), Ukrainian is spoken, people there can certainly speak Russian but they don't like to and they proudly refer to themselves as Ukrainians--land of Gogol, Shevchenko, and the Cossacks. Ukrainian is the only "official" language of Ukraine, though a couple of years ago, The eastern Ukrainian city, Dnipropetrovsk, Ukraine's 4th largest city and it's industrial heart, declared Russian as its official language. Similarly. By contrast, in the East, many can't speak Ukrainian at all. Most refer to themselves as Russian. The West is agriculture; the East has mining and heavy industry and the Naval Base.
- lcedp 13y agoIt's not that simple, guys. A more detailed map updated few hours ago https://pp.vk.me/c424218/v424218475/a161/yp73T93Y_l0.jpg https://pp.vk.me/c424218/v424218475/a161/yp73T93Y_l0.jpg