How to stop Russia?!

After the Russian annexation of Crimea, separatists in the country supported by Russia took part in a similar scenario in the eastern part of Ukraine. Analysts predict that this will lead to bloodshed.

Ukraine has woken up and it is not going to surrender like it did with Crimea. Moscow will have to launch an open military assault if it wants to fulfill its plans. Ukrainian leaders are doing their best to avoid such developments. However, it is unlikely that Russian President Vladimir Putin will back down.

The eastern part of Ukraine, which is mainly inhabited by Russian-speakers, is encouraged by the Kremlin to demand either the federal division of Ukraine or directly joining Russia.

On the streets, there are mysterious people dressed in camouflage, equipped with armored vests, holding modern Russian-made automatic rifles and other sophisticated weapons. They are disciplined, organized, and are equipped with field communication walky-talkies.

Although Ukrainian separatists claim that these are volunteer members of local self-defence militias, everybody suspects that these are Russian task force members. Witnesses say that these people do not look like locals, as they do not know the locations, streets, and districts they need. Moreover, their accent is not Ukrainian but rather Russian.

Many analysts predicted that after annexing Crimea that Putin would not stop there. In response, the West, including the US, has limited themselves thus far, by imposing financial sanctions on Russia.

Heavily armed pro-Russian separatists have simultaneously started their activities in Kharkiv, Lugansk, and the Donetsk regions in different towns, where they have occupied administrative and police buildings.

The Ukrainian government gave the separatists an ultimatum to surrender. The terms of this ultimatum have expired. Now Kiev can launch an attack on the separatists anytime. However, Kiev is still waiting to see how negotiations work. It knows very well that around 45,000 Russian soldiers are close to the Ukrainian border ready to enter the country with tanks, artillery, and aircraft at any moment.

The western media has already published photos taken from space where one can vividly see the Russian camps stationed at the border with Ukraine.

Regretfully the West did not do the same during the Georgian-Russian War in August 2008. At that time, the Russian war machine stationed a huge contingent of its military forces across the Georgian border near the breakaway South Ossetian region.

Ukrainian analysts say that the Kremlin is waiting for the reason to launch an attack. This reason might be the start of anti-terrorist and anti-separatism measures taken by the Ukrainian armed forces against the separatists or any trifle provocation staged by Russians. But at the same time, if the Ukrainian government does not restore constitutional order in the regions, the separatists will hold a referendum, declare independence and join Russia. The latter will accept them into the Russian Federation and Moscow will thus snatch another piece of land from Ukraine. In this case, Russian separatists might continue this dirty game and take over more territories like Odessa and Nikolayev and probably move to Prednestrovie in Moldova.

With these possible developments Kiev is going to have to fight for its statehood. Ukraine wants to involve international forces to help with this situation. Meanwhile, the Russian propaganda machine releases information suggesting that Putin has the support of the Russian population in Ukraine to assist them.

There is the possibility that the Ukrainian leadership will hold a referendum during the May 25 presidential election regarding the issue of Ukraine’s federalization. Ukrainian leaders are confident that, supporters of federalization will lose and Kiev will be able to maintain its integrity.

However, this is not in Moscow’s plans. They want bloodshed, confrontation, unrest in Ukraine and in this case, Moscow will catch a bigger fish.