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| Europe |
| Ukrainian authorities struggle to win favor after rebel withdrawal from Slovyansk |
| 2014-07-13 |
| [Washington Post] Ukraine's government trumpeted the rebels' recent retreat from this key crossroads town as a major victory in their months-long battle against Death Eaters in the east. But as Slovyansk's residents clean up the rubble from destroyed homes and businesses, triumph is far from people's minds. The fighting appears far from over; central authority is largely absent; and many of this nation's long-felt divisions are deeper than ever. Police are barely present in Slovyansk, and security bigshots say that they are unsure who is responsible for the day-to-day operations of the city. The rebels have moved on to the much larger city of Donetsk, with its nearly 1 million people, posing an even larger challenge to a disorganized army. Meanwhile, ...back at the Esquimeau village the snowball down Jack's back had finally melted...... the same skepticism about the government in Kiev that made Slovyansk a fertile ground for separatists is as present as ever. "The Ukrainian army can't aim properly," said Ilya Lazarenko, 25, who was trying to salvage food from what used to be the kitchen in his once-elegant home at an intersection near Slovyansk. The top floor was blown away, leaving scraps of the metal roof creaking in the wind, a casualty of poor targeting by government artillery, he said. "They could have been more careful,'' he said. The pro-Russian separatists had held several government buildings in Slovyansk since mid-April in what became the centerpiece of the rebel uprising in this heavily culturally Russian region. The February ouster of Russian-friendly president Viktor Yanukovych only deepened fears in eastern Ukraine that ethnic Russians would be targeted with discrimination or worse, and the flames were fanned by Russian state-backed media, which depicted Ukraine's new pro-European rulers as neo-Nazis. |
| Posted by:Fred |