The ingredients were all there for a rapid escalation in the crisis. Bloody battles in the Debaltseve region, a new front in the southern city of Mariupol forming a land bridge between Crimea and Eastern Ukraine, a January declaration from rebel leaders for the mobilization of one hundred thousand fighters, and claims of Russian troops and equipment in the conflict zone.
War between Russia and Ukraine appeared imminent. Ukraine’s Hryvnia had already plunged nearly 50 per cent against the dollar in 2014; in one day of trading on February 6 it fell another 25 per cent as a result of market …read more
Source: iPolitics
