Kiev, Ukraine. A small snow ball set in motion this past winter, grew into an avalanche that future historians will say was the turning point in the Donbass integration with Russia. The funny part is it was all done by Kiev, from start to end.
Introduced in March by the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine, the ban on trade with the occupied territories was in place and under control of the veterans of the war with Donbass, who in January physically prevented the movement of trains and trucks.
Kiev fought against actively the blockade of trade with the occupied territories, because oligarchs were making a fortune selling goods there. Others in the veterans movement believed the trade provided a handy avenue to further corrupt Ukrainian leaders, state security services and the armed forces. Once the blockade by veterans was broken, Kiev itself introduced one itself, that became the final straw between Donbass and Kiev.
All of this fighting between the Poroshenko administration and the Veterans movement was the start of accelerated integration of the Donbass Republics into the Russian Federation. By seeking to punish Donetsk and Lugansk, Kiev only succeeded in provocation of nationalization in Donbass, a reverse trade embargo, an end to coal needed by Kiev and fast track integration of Donbass with Moscow.
Now the draft law on the recognition of the “occupied territories” as illegally occupied by Russia can not advance any further in the Ukrainian Rada Parliament. Representatives of Petro Poroshenko, Narodniy Front and the Radical Party voted against the law in the State Building Committee, where the bill was placed for preliminary consideration.
The fact that the majority of MPs and Poroshenko are blocking the law on the “occupied territories” is a tell-tale sign of just how far out of touch the current Ukrainian government is. They are so un-willing to face the fact they have caused the unthinkable themselves, they are incapable of dealing with the permanent divide to Ukraine, they themselves caused.