EVEN as Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, was heading to the G20 summit in Brisbane, Australia, tensions in Ukraine were escalating. Scores of tanks, lorries and artillery, unmarked and stripped of licence plates, were snaking along Ukrainian roads. Kiev accused Moscow of sending in more troops; Russia denied it. The ceasefire that never worked is close to being outright non-existent.This time the build-up began days before elections in eastern Ukraine’s separatist republics. Independent observers, including an OSCE monitoring mission, noticed large military convoys around Donetsk. On November 12th NATO’s senior commander, Philip Breedlove, said the alliance had seen Russian equipment, primarily …read more
Source: The Economist
