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http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/01/world ... rticleSkip
President Oleksandr V. Turchynov, the acting President of Ukraine, and head of the Kiev government, held a meeting with governors of the 27 Oblasts ( provincial political subdivision within Ukraine ) and announced that neither the national government in Kiev, nor any provincial governor, exercised control over large swaths of the extreme eastern portions of Ukraine ( a densely populated area of approximately 6 Million people ) and he, the acting President of Ukraine, had no available course of action to get such control back. The President announced it as a simple fact that a majority of local police and majority of national police forces stationed in eastern Ukraine simply declined to follow orders, from their governor and also refused to follow orders from the national government in Kiev, when the orders related to confronting, or standing up to, the separatists and their supporters.
There was no comment from the other man who also claims to be the President of Ukraine, Victor F. Yanukovych, the man elected in 2010 and who remains the only elected President of Ukraine, but who fled the country to Russia in February.
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/01/world ... rticleSkipNew York Times, April 30th, 2014 wrote:
“Inactivity, helplessness and even criminal betrayal” plague the security forces, the acting leader ( President of Ukraine ), Oleksandr V. Turchynov, told a meeting of regional ( Ukrainian ) governors in Kiev. “It is hard to accept but it’s the truth. The majority of law enforcers in the east are incapable of performing their duties.”
With Mr. (President) Turchynov’s acknowledgment that a significant chunk of the country had slipped from the government’s grasp, the long-simmering conflict in Ukraine seemed to enter a new and more dangerous phase. Whether that amounts to the lasting dismemberment of Ukraine or hands control of the east to Russia and its president, Vladimir V. Putin, were among the many questions left unanswered after Mr. Turchynov delivered his stark assessment.
Whatever the long-term effects, the militants’ seizure of symbolic buildings in cities throughout the country’s southeast is serving what analysts in Russia and the West say is Mr. Putin’s short-term goal of so disrupting normal life there that the pro-Russian separatists’ plans for a May 11 vote on autonomy from Kiev could trump Ukraine’s plans to hold a presidential election two weeks later.
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Russia has managed to achieve its immediate goal of what Western and Ukrainian officials believe is rendering Ukraine so chaotic that it cannot guarantee order, mend its teetering economy, nor elect new leaders to replace Mr. Turchynov and the acting government installed after the pro-Russian president, Victor F. Yanukovych, fled in February.
“Until May 25,” when the presidential vote is scheduled, “is unfortunately still a lot of time,” said Olga Aivazovska, a co-founder of Opora, an independent election monitoring and polling group. Whether a vote will take place — and how valid it could be if parts of the east do not take part — “is a big puzzle,” she said.
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