It's striking how perception of Vladimir Putin has changed since the beginning of his war in Ukraine. The eccentric, macho Vlad of the past who liked to bend rules in the eyes of the West has been replaced by an evil, unpredictable and threatening character whose hand you shun to shake. Read More

Russian-paid separatists pose aboard a mobile anti-aircraft battery.
As Russian military supplies continue to enter Ukraine, it becomes harder by the day for Putin to deny that Moscow is providing arms to the separatists.
In fact Lt. Gen. Ben Hodges, the US Army's top commander in Europe, says that Russian support for separatists has "doubled" since Ukraine and Russia reached a tentative ceasefire.
"When you look at the amount of Russian equipment that the proxies were using prior to the Minsk agreements, that amount has doubled beginning in December into the hundreds," Hodges told reporters on his first visit to Ukraine. Read More HERE

But the Kyiv government still has a mountain to climb.To those who accept Vladimir Putin’s view of Ukraine as an ‘artificial state’, the routing of pro-Russian insurgents from their stronghold in Slavyansk on July 5 might have come as a shock. It certainly appears to have surprised the Kremlin.
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(Berlin) – Russian-backed insurgent forces in eastern Ukraine are arbitrarily detaining civilians and subjecting them to torture, degrading treatment, and forced labor. They also have detained civilians for use as hostages.

Beginning in April 2014, armed fighters supporting the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) and Luhansk People’s Republic (LPR) have captured hundreds of civilians, targeting presumed critics, including journalists, pro-Ukrainian political activists, religious activists, and in some cases their family members.

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