Welcome to the Bizarre World of the Ukrainian Rebels

[Tommy_Carcetti]

http://mashable.com/2014/10/14/bizarre-world-of-ukrainian-rebels/#:eyJzIjoidCIsImkiOiJfajN5c3QwajMxdTdiZ2Z5eSJ9

Welcome to the Bizarre World of the Ukrainian Rebels
By Christopher Miller
2 hours ago







Snip:

The self-proclaimed “federation” comprised of the "people's republics" of Donetsk and Luhansk is the world’s newest and perhaps most bizarre quasi-state, a place of grand delusion, rumor, fear, braggadocio and propaganda. It is also ground zero of a war neither Ukraine nor Russia nor the West officially recognizes as a war, though an array of weapons systems with names like “Hail,” “Hurricane” and “Tornado” are used to wage war daily and have contributed to the deaths of more than 3,600 people, according to the United Nations.

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Elsewhere, clashes rage on, too. Since the beginning of the nominal cease-fire, at least 331 people have died, according to the UN. Those fighting on the separatist side wear uniforms with Russian flags and badges of Russian brigades. Many of them speak with a different accent — a harsher dialect more commonly heard in Moscow or The Caucuses, suggesting they aren't exactly locals. Those who admit as much say they’re not here on official orders from the Kremlin. Rather, they repeat Moscow’s official line: they’re volunteers on holiday

On city squares, entertainment is often provided by kids — one child poet, carrying a toy gun and wearing a camouflage bandana around her head, jumped on a stage recently, giving a live mic performance in which she damned the Ukrainian “Nazi morons." On another day, a group of school children performed a play in which they depicted Ukrainians as Nazis while black-and-white footage of World War II fascists played on big screen behind them.

Propaganda like this is ubiquitous. The city resembles the pages of a certain George Orwell novel, with gunmen roaming the streets reminding people to “speak the truth,” and billboards portraying the current fight to that of the Second World War.

[DetlefK]

1. "We are free! Now let's join the glorious russian empire!"

[underpants]

2. +

Marking for later read