Looking for Ukraine
On the sunny morning of May 9 I had seen and heard much of what you need to understand the conflict in eastern Ukraine. The simmering anger at being ripped off by the rich and politicians had melded into a narrative of fighting fascism and playing a part in a grand and glorious story of liberation and victory that was setting much of the east alight.
.. Angry people in town, fed up with years of poverty and abuse by their rulers, now believe they are surrounded by neo-Nazi storm troopers. But the Ukrainian soldiers on the outskirts of town, on the hill with the television tower, with whom they are trading gunfire and mortar shells, are also angry and on edge. They believe that Sloviansk is full of Russian special forces with terrifying Chechen auxiliaries (I saw neither) rather than locals sitting at a table with a few old guns and a vase of flowers.