BALTIMORE, Maryland May 8, 2014 - Separatists in Eastern Ukraine have vowed to hold the referendum on cessation from Ukraine even though Russian Strong Man Vladimir Putin says he now opposes such a step. A PEW Research Poll of Eastern Ukraine residents released today said a shocking 70% of all citizens in the eastern sector want to remain Ukrainian, and with Ukrain's borders being totally unchanged. This, even as EU Ministers meeting in Brussels, Belgium have tentatively approved ramped up sanctions against Russia. The EU says it has seen no signs of Russia pulling its troops back from the Ukraine Border, despite Putin's assertions that he intends to pull some of them off of their heightened status on the border. And a USA Frigate, the USS Taylor, arrived in the Georgian port of Batumi today as a sign of America's solidarity with the last country Putin had Russia invade prior to Ukraine.
Radio Free Europe today reported that Separatist leaders meeting in the Eastern Ukraine city of Donestsk - a Separatist stronghold - emerged today to say the referendum will go forward in three days even though Putin was quoted yesterday as saying it should be postponed. Oleksly Chmylenko, identified by RFE as a "self-styled leader of the Luhansk separatist forces," told the Interfax News Agency today that what he called the "people's assembly of the self-proclaimed Luhansk People's Republic" decided to go ahead with the referendum on May 11. Separatists also said a similar referendum will be held in Donetsk. A spokesman in Moscow for Putin, Dmitry Peskov, said the Kremlin is analyzing the decision announced today by the separatists. An EU spokeswoman, Catherine Ashton, the EU foreign policy chief, said the referendum "should not take place on May 11 or on any other date." The referendums, she announced, will have "no legitimacy and can only lead to further escalation" of the months-long crisis.
In Kiev, the Secretary of the Ukrainian National Security and Defense Council, Andriy Parubly, said the Ukraine's military operation against the Separatists, which in recent days has freed a number of areas from Separatist control, would continue whether or not the referendum is held.
Some people who are longtime Moscow watchers believe that Russia is in the process of creating distance between themselves and the Separatists. First, as reflected by the PEW poll - and western reporters on the ground have been saying this about Eastern Ukraine from the start of the unrest - there is not popular support for the separatists or cessation in the eastern sector of Ukraine. Life under the Soviet Union was not fun and was at times barely livable. Even some ethnic Russians are not in a hurry to return to the "good old days." Second, the Separatists have not distinguished themselves as a fine group of people. They take hostages, they rough up people they don't like, they put out a call for Jewish people to register, and they don't even get along with each other. If Eastern Ukraine broke away from the rest of Ukraine and somehow managed to gain independence, there would be years of guerilla fighting before some faction emerged to be in charge. Ukraine is a democracy. People get to vote. There are ethnic tensions, which is never good, but with western influence there is hope that this part of the national scene will be diminished.
The EU continued to move haphazardly toward ramped up sanctions. Right now, these new sanctions may end of being nothing more than adding names to the list of people whose western assets are being frozen. Putin has promised to respond in kind.
The Defense News, a commercial military publication, revealed today that a USA Warship, the USS Taylor, has docked in Bitumi, Georgia, having been sent as a reminder to Russia of western solidarity with Georgia. There were reports about one month ago that Russia has also beefed up its ground forces and artillery and armored vehicle counts in South Odessa, a small portion of Georgia wrested away by Russia during a brief war between the two nations in 2008.
The USS Taylor’s “presence in Georgia reaffirms the United States’ commitment to strengthening ties with NATO allies and partners like Georgia, while working toward mutual goals of promoting peace and stability in the region,” the United States' embassy in Tbilisi, Georgia said in a statement.
The US 6th Fleet frigate arrived in Georgia for three days of exercises with the country’s coastguard in the Black Sea after completing joint live-fire exercises and an anti-submarine warfare scenario along with Romanian ships in recent weeks, the embassy added. NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen wrote on Twitter yesterday that "allied ships, planes, and [joint] exercises show vigilance and resolve from the Baltic to the Black Seas. We'll keep reinforcing NATO Security."
“Allied ships, planes, exercises show vigilance and resolve from the Baltic to the Black Sea. We’ll keep reinforcing NATO security,” NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen wrote on Twitter on Wednesday.
The Georgian Government has expressed concern about the continuing Russian presence and the recent build=up. Some have theorized that Putin wants to open a land-bridge directly from Russia to Iran.
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