A rising Russian tide
Eastern approaches 2014-04-14
Summary:
TOWN by town, eastern Ukraine is falling under the control of men hostile to the Ukrainian state. On April 14th it was the turn of Gorlivka (also known as Horlivka), a 45-minute drive from the regional capital of Donetsk. A couple of hours earlier a deadline had expired, set by Ukraine's president, Alexander Turchinov, who demanded that men occupying government and police buildings leave them. The previous day Mr Turchinov had warned that the army would be deployed to regain control of the east.
Gorlivka is a mining town and has strategic value as an important railway junction. Other towns where police buildings have been seized in the past few days—including Slaviansk and Kramatorsk—lie on the main highway to Kharkiv, in the north, through which Russian troops based in Belgorod would have to pass in case of a fully-fledged invasion.
To the south this road leads to Mariupol, on the Black Sea coast and close to the Russian border. Here the police building has also fallen into the hands of pro-Russian rebels. To the west of Donetsk, on the main road to Kiev, at Krasnoarmiysk, an attempt to take the police building has so far...Continue reading