Russian media has been fixated for the past couple of days on 'mass graves' in Donbas and talks of genocide going on against the pro-Russian populace there and beyond on behalf of Ukrainian forces and the likes of Azov Battalion, drawing comparisons to Bosnia in the 90s among others (which ironically they helped facilitate in more than one way but that's another can of worms). I wouldn't be surprised if this ends up being the ultimate justification for an invasion (whether limited to separatist regions or a full-blown one targeting Kyiv and beyond) which might prove easier than bothering to come up with an elaborate false flag operation of sorts like the US intelligence had warned about on multiple occasions by now.
I'm afraid this sh*tstorm is far from over.
I don't know exactly, but in the chaos that was there in 2014, stuff like that could have happened. Let's not forget, thousands died there. But that doesn't automatically mean that the ukrainians did it. In these cases, it's usually the majority 'cleansing' the minorities, and the majority there is russian. One could easily imagine, during the lawlesness that followed, one ' leader' or another trying to purge former Ukrainian govt institutions or settling their debts with former Ukrainian authorities etc Edit : especially since at least some of the new 'leadership' seemed recruited from the local mob
Edit:; as far as the republics go, I think letting pro-russians grab them like that was the worst way to do it, but they could have had increased independence through federalisation etc. I have a feeling Ukraine, like other former soviet countries, was far from being a beacon of equality, even before Euromaidan. There is this thing, it's sort of immoral to keep hold of regions that are not only majoritarily russian, but pro-russian as well. and Ukraine had this problem before. Ideally solved by impartial referendums and increased autonomy, but that ship has sailed. On the other hand, Russia doesn't really 'want' those areas, they just want to break them apart.
I know, I know, eastern Ukraine is the industrial 'heart' of Ukraine, but one could envisage a peaceful split along ethnic lines WITHOUT the thing going full DMZ all over again. Western Ukraine with Kyiv etc goes on its merry way to EU and NATO, and the east remains pro-Russian. They could do a passport thing like Romania did with Moldova, so that instead of trying to re-unify, the eastern ukrainians could get west-ukrainians passports easily and just move over.
But that probably won't work either, since Putin doesn't even want the 'finlandization' of a neutral Ukraine. Ukraine, as it is, is already a buffer state and joining NATO and EU is a long way away not only because of Russia, but because there are many internal reforms to be done to be eligible. The real danger for him is Ukraine starting to take its own decisions without phoning the Kremlin first, be it economically or otherwise. The risk isn't Ukraine getting 'estranged' or peeled off from Russia, the risk is that they're so close anyways culturally etc that Ukraine becomes an example of democracy and outperforms Russia, thus making him look bad.
