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Many Ukrainians Want Russia To Invade
Many Ukrainians Want Russia To Invade
For the most part, what drove so many people to renounce their
allegiance to Ukraine was a mix of pride and fear, the latter fueled
in part by misinformation from Moscow. The most apparent
deception came on Saturday morning, when the Russian Foreign
Ministry put out a statement accusing the new government in Kiev
of staging a treacherous provocation on the Crimean peninsula.
It claimed that unidentified armed men had been sent from Kiev
to seize the headquarters of the Interior Ministry police in Crimea.
But thanks to the decisive actions of self-defense battalions, the
statement said, the attack had been averted with just a few
casualties. This statement turned out to be without any basis in
fact.
But the claims coming from Moscow were still enough to spread
panic in eastern and southern Ukraine. On Saturday, pro-Russian
activists in the Crimean capital of Simferopol staged a massive
demonstration in the city, calling on residents to rally against the
Nazi authorities who had come to power in Kiev. Whats
happening in Ukraine is terrifying, says one of the organizers of
the march, Evgenia Dobrynya. Were in a situation now where the
country is ruled by terrorists and radicals.
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speaking half of the country, and the ban was quickly lifted. But the
damage was done. With that one ill-considered piece of legislation,
the new leaders had convinced millions of ethnic Russians that a
wave of repression awaited them. So it was no surprise on Friday
when a livid mob in Crimea attacked a liberal lawmaker who came
to reason with them. Struggling to make his case over the
screaming throng, Petro Poroshenko was chased back to his car
amid cries of fascist!
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the east and the south, and Moscow has played on those fears to
claim that Nazis are coming to power. On Saturday, when Putin
asked his upper house of parliament to allow an invasion of
Ukraine, the lawmakers had no trouble coming up with a
justification. Whats happening in Ukraine is a true mutiny, a
plague of brown-shirts, said one of the senators, Nikolai Ryzhkov.