Irena Chalupa for Atlantic Council (Chalupa is a former Ukrainian Service director of RFE/RL):
[Colonel Igor] Girkin conceded in an interview with Svobodnaya Pressa (“Free Press”), an internet news site, that in April he expected a Russian takeover of the Donbas region to go as smoothly and bloodlessly as Russia’s just-completed seizure of Crimea, in which Girkin had taken part. “I planned to do everything like in Crimea, I hoped that everything would go according to the Crimean scenario. We planned to help local leaders establish popular rule, conduct a referendum and unite with Russia.” In June, Girkin complained in Donbas that he was unable to persuade significant numbers of Donbas men, especially the young, to join the war against Ukraine. Asked now why the Donbas conflict has not resulted in a popular, pro-Russian uprising, he doesn’t quite manage an explanation. Of one thing he is sure: that Russia has failed to give it enough support.
Here's our own recent story on the organization, "Under Fire In Ukraine, OSCE Questions Its Worth."
:-)
Nice tweebate among friends:
Germany's foreign minister doesn't think de-escalation is coming to Ukraine anytime soon:
German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier has said there are no signs fighting in Ukraine will end anytime soon.
Steinmeier spoke during a November 19 press conference in Berlin, a day after he visited Kyiv and Moscow in an effort to ease tensions in eastern Ukraine, where fighting has left more than 4,000 people dead since March.
Steinmeier said, "Unfortunately, we are very, very far from a sustainable de-escalation of the conflict and even further from a political solution."
Steinmeier met with Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk in Kyiv and with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and President Vladimir Putin in Moscow to try to gather support for implementing the so-called Minsk protocol.
Steinmeier added, "What the Minsk protocol says for conditions on the ground and what changes are necessary within eastern Ukraine -- the creation of transparency, controls, and the establishment of borders -- must be worked on." (Reuters)