At heart of Ukraine drama, a tale of two countries

[steve2470]

http://bigstory.ap.org/article/heart-ukraine-drama-tale-two-countries

DONETSK, Ukraine (AP) — In the afternoon, when the shift ends at the coal mine and the miners walk out into the cold and past the old concrete statue of Lenin, they often head to a tiny corner store a block away. There they'll stand in the parking lot for a while, drinking little bottles of the vodka called "Truthful."

They know what is happening in Kiev, the capital city that can seem so far away. They've seen pictures of the democracy protesters shot dead in Kiev's streets, and the TV reports on the mansions of ousted President Viktor Yanukovych, the one-time thug and pro-Russia politician who grew up in this far-eastern city. They watched from afar this week as protesters, many from western Ukraine, helped form the country's new government.

They don't like it at all.

"I have always felt that we are so different," said a miner who gave his name only as Nikolai, a thickset 35-year-old who went from high school directly into the mines. People speak Russian across most of Ukraine's east, and worship in onion-domed Orthodox churches. They were shaped by 70 years of Soviet rule and its celebration of socialist industrialization, and by the Russian empire before that. To them, the government is now being run by outsiders who care little for this side of the country. "If they try to pressure us, our region will revolt."

[MysticHuman]

1. A very well written article...

Thanks for posting. It helps in understanding this very difficult time for Ukraine.

The more I read about it... the more I almost feel they would be better to split.

It will be a difficult road either way they go...

[Cha]

2. Thank you, steve.. saving

[independentpiney]

3. There really should be at least two separate countries

And it will be nice if it can be done and done peacefully. The Ukrainian SSR was a 1920 political construct, and the Crimea wasn't even added to it until sometime in the mid 20th century as a Soviet bureaucratic move. Crimea has been a vital part of the Russian Empire since around the same time the US gained independence, it's difficult to for me to see how Russia and Russophile Crimeans can accept an EU/NATO aligned government controlling Sevastopol and Black Sea access. Maybe Crimea should be allowed to secede, the Russophile areas of eastern Ukraine allowed a vote to incorporate into Russia, and the Ukraine can pursue an EU based policy or whatever else it wants without posing such a strong foreign policy threat to Russia.