This could be financially bad news for the Kiev junta:

Ukraine coal miners on strike, refuse to pay Kiev coup damages bill

“I don't understand why are we involved!” one of the protesting miners, Stanislav Denisenko told Itar-tass. “It was not us who dismantled the stones and burned the houses down. I get about 900 hryvna a month, that is around 9,000 rubles ($260). I don't understand why they are taking away my salary.”

...

“We are also against Kiev's junta. We do not recognize their authority. It is not legitimate. We stand for the memory of our ancestors fighting alongside Russians. We're all Slavs. We are one nation. We do not have heroes such as Bandera and Shukhevych. We are against these people because they are destroying our history,” one of the protesters said during the second day of the strike.

An Mi-8 Hip of the Ukraine Army on fire in the sky near Kramatorsk, no victims according to military analyst D.Tymchuk.

https://www.facebook.com/dmitry.tymchuk/posts/487532738042053

Gosh, Bob, the NYT should be paying you for doing their job- and giving them a clinic in the process. (A good journalism school would be advised to pick up on your articles and use them in a case study, to teach what to do and what not to do.)

At least the Times responded, even if today someone else there (Tom Friedman) spewed more pro-Kiev smoke and b..s.. Why, I ask myself did he have to misrepresent the issues at hand and pretend that Russia had been forcing Ukraine to deal with it exclusively to condemn Ukraine to a permanent status of serfdom and corruption, or couldn’t bring himself to mention that it was the EU that was trying to force itself on Ukraine as its exclusive partner, and the EU that coerced an agreement with Ukraine’s constitutional leader which it abandoned within a day, or address the impact on Ukraine of the EU’s austerity package, or what the benefits to Ukraine of a non-exclusive multilateral relationship could be, or why Russia cannot allow Ukraine to become a member of NATO, or what the deep historical relationship is between the people of Ukraine, a paper state without any real independent history, and Russia of which much of Ukraine was a part, etc., etc.

Propaganda comes in all forms. TF’s is the fluffy phony baloney variety.

Russia want the eastern provinces of Ukraine to join the Eurasian customs union (which includes Belarus and Kazakhstan in addition to Russia). I don't think that Kiev will agree to that demand.

Question (in Russian): - How much more can we tolerate this chaos in the country?
Ljashko answers (in Ukrainian): - Unless you speak Ukrainian to me, I will not be understanding you!
A woman's voice from the audience (in Russian): - Can someone already punch him?!

- Сколько можно терпеть этот бардак в стране?
Ляшко:
 - Якщо ви говорите росiйськой мовою, я вас не буду розумiти!
Женский голос из задних рядов:
 - Да дайте же ему в морду!

“If we are attacked, we would certainly respond. If our interests, our legitimate interests, the interests of Russians have been attacked directly, like they were in South Ossetia for example, I do not see any other way but to respond in accordance with international law,” he said.

“Russian citizens being attacked is an attack against the Russian Federation,” he told RT.

“There is no reason not to believe that the Americans are running the show,” said Lavrov, referencing US Vice President Joe Biden’s visit to Kiev and its coincidence with the renewed counter-terror operation on activists in East Ukraine.

“It’s quite telling they chose the moment of the Vice President of the US’ visit to announce the resumption of this operation because the launching of this operation happened immediately after John Brennon’s [head of the CIA] visit to Kiev,” said Lavrov.

“Ukraine is just one manifestation of the American unwillingness to yield in the geopolitical fight. Americans are not ready to admit that they cannot run the show in each and every part of the globe from Washington alone,” said Lavrov, adding Washington’s “ready-made solutions” cannot remedy a crisis that it does not understand.

I think that the plans for annexation of Donbas (if there were such plans whatsoever) are scrapped, it's the peaceful federalization which Moscow is trying to push through in near future. But I do agree that this message, perhaps, hasn't been made loud and clear enough to Russian ethnic minority in the east Ukraine, where many are still dreaming about joining Russia. This is indeed a potentially hazardous situation: Russia cannot afford the price of absorbing these regions but if Ukrainians do something stupid, like launching massive attack on rebels, most likely followed by dozens or hundreds of dead, Putin will have no choice but to react and use army to protect his people. It's the worst case scenario for everyone there and I truly hope that all sides are going to be smart enough to avoid it at all costs.

And an expected outcome after his statements, where he is dissatisfied with peaceful solutions from Russia with regard to Crimean Tatars, and tries to instigate unrest:

Dzhemilev, who is a citizen of Ukraine, is prohibited entry into Russian Federation, Crimea included, for the duration of the next 5 years.
http://www.gazeta.ru/politics/news/2014/04/22/n_6101389.shtml

Russian authorities have denied reports that Ukrainian MP and former Crimean Tatar leader Mustafa Dzhemilev had been slapped with a 5-year entrance ban to Crimea. Dzhemilev claims he was given a travel restriction order on the Russia-Ukraine border.

...

“We do not have such information. Therefore, why do you think that we have banned him from entering the Russian Federation? I can send you the same document, you can also send it to me. I've seen it, and there is really nothing to comment on here.”

...

 “It's just a piece of paper that someone wrote to someone without attaching an official seal or a signature,” said the spokesman, as cited by Ukrinform. “We do not comment on such papers.”

The Crimean parliament has also denied allegations of issuing such a ban on Dzhemilev, saying that his name is not included in the officially compiled travel restriction list which now has over 340 names.

This is not the first time over the last few weeks the US has backed its rhetorical comments for the Western media with questionable documents presented as hard evidence.

Last week a letter urging the Jews of Donetsk to get registered or have their citizenships revoked, was presented as factual evidence of chaos and widespread human rights abuses by the US Secretary of State in Geneva. The letter turned out to be a fake according to a man whose name was typed on the communication.

Switzerland Ups Arms Budget Due to Ukraine Unrest


Why the Swiss have to poke their nose in to Ukraine right now?

“You can’t compare the situation in Kiev, where now everything that is still being held by protesters is being held with licenses and with the agreement of the government of Ukraine, with the agreement of the Rada, or with regular leases from the owners of the buildings,” Nuland told CNN in an interview.

People holding illegal arms and occupying government buildings are perfectly OK, as long as they are permitted to do so, believes Washington’s top diplomat in Europe. But doing exactly the same thing without permission is bad.

speaking of the "Tatars of the Crimea" rather than the "Crimean Tatars", thus rhetorically stripping them of the status of the native people of the Crimea.

BARF    -being careful not to ship too many devices as to dilute the return to investors/customers.  Who the fck are they shipping units to if it is not their customers??? 

obviously a delay tactic as they are making tons of equipment and mining in the meantime as stealthily as possible.