Map of #Ukraine redrawn at #Donetsk Peoples’ Republic leader Denis Pushilin’s office. Room 1007 pic.twitter.com/EQP826e7Xg
— Chris Dzieciolowski (@kdzieciol) May 12, 2014
A tweet which fascinated me yesterday came from Chris Dzieciolowski, the Al Jazeera correspondent in Donetsk.
Scribbled on top of the map with a slightly chilling informality, by the newly-independent region’s president, was this diagram. In it – by my calculation – he included a further seven regions of eastern Ukraine after counting off Donetsk, Luhansk and Crimea.
Of course, this could just be a pipe-dream of a euphoric local politician post-election, who looks forward to his region joining Russia very shortly (a second referendum is expected on Sunday).
However, we have noted before at this blog that the Donetsk regime appears to be quite close to the Kremlin. It is not beyond the wit of man to conclude that it might also be an inkling of exactly how the Putin administration sees the ideal endgame in Ukraine – a gobbling-up of more than half the country.
By the time that little lot has gone, we are talking definitively about a “rump” Ukraine. We shall see very soon which of these two readings is the right one.