Large parts central Kyiv darkened last night for +2hrs. Restaurant/bar owners fear could be harbinger of further power outages during winter
— Michael Bociurkiw (@mikeybbq) September 27, 2014
http://t.co/hH0YpHcc8H Russian Duma deputies want to block Wikipedia because some of its articles say Russia "annexed" Crimea. The audacity.
— Kevin Rothrock (@KevinRothrock) September 27, 2014
Kharkiv: a peaceful communist demo was banned today, two dozen protesters detained, including an ex-MP https://t.co/sqJMesHDaB
— Maxim Eristavi (@MaximEristavi) September 27, 2014
"Would be great to set on fire a communist too" Kharkiv neo-Nazis attack communist activists, set on fire their tent https://t.co/3EwVLqgGRP
— Maxim Eristavi (@MaximEristavi) September 27, 2014
Dnipropetrovsk. Lists of people lost and taken prisoner. http://t.co/TFKxQ6XAIw pic.twitter.com/1alJfGvB1P
— Simon Kruse (@crusoes) September 27, 2014
Lavrov: #Kyiv's claims to renounce non-aligned status not helping peace in east #Ukraine http://t.co/Vl5O7r4oTT
— Kyiv Post (@KyivPost) September 27, 2014
Local commie leader Aleksandrovskaya detained in #Kharkiv, known for '#Ukraine isn't a state' position. Pic @itsector pic.twitter.com/crfBwaxHM3
— Olga Tokariuk (@olgatokariuk) September 27, 2014
Gregory Feifer -- formerly of this parish -- has been writing for The Global Post on how the Ukraine crisis is helping to forge a new national identity in the country:
In cities such as Mariupol in the east and Odessa in the west, residents worry about Russian-backed attacks coming at any moment.
But such threats, many people here say, are helping Ukraine form its own identity for the first time since the end of communism. “If suffering and sacrifice forms a nation,” Kuzakova says, “it’s happening now.”
Although Russian is still spoken everywhere, more people insist on speaking Ukrainian, especially the young. Shirts decorated with traditional Ukrainian embroidery are selling out. Crews of men are painting roadside railings yellow and blue, the colors of the national flag.
Political analyst Volodymyr Fesenko says the new identity is forming after two decades during which Ukrainians felt pulled between loyalties to their new post-communist country, Russia, the West and nostalgia for the Soviet past.
“The national hymn is no longer abstract, but a very real signifier of unity with one’s own people,” he says. “The same for the flag’s colors and other national symbols.”
That process is forcing choices on the many people here with deep ties to Russia, including relatives and friends living there.
Among them, Alexander Loginov, a third-generation ethnic Russian in Kyiv, says he’s not sure who’s to blame for the conflict. “I don’t know how it started,” he says, “but it makes you want to cry.”
Despite or perhaps because of the gritty nature of life in the typically bleak industrial regions of the east, many there tended to look down on western Ukrainians, often seen as unfairly benefitting from their hard work.
Appealing to them represents one of the government’s most delicate challenges. “They must feel Ukraine is their country, too, and that they have a future within it,” Fesenko says, adding that anti-corruption and modernization reform will be crucial for that.
Read the entire article here
Illegal Russian intervention in Ukraine;# President Poroshenko slams #Russian 'aid convoy' http://t.co/Ed3ZP6gkr7
— Kyiv Post (@KyivPost) September 27, 2014
20ppl detained at a communist party demo in #Kharkiv - Interior minister. Protest was banned by court. Pic @itsector pic.twitter.com/nR3ALaO09H
— Olga Tokariuk (@olgatokariuk) September 27, 2014
Ppl with communist party flags,separatist slogans protest in #Kharkiv.There's more police than protesters v @itsector pic.twitter.com/w1VzAPCh3K
— Olga Tokariuk (@olgatokariuk) September 27, 2014