Poroshenko rules and bloodshed continues. For him acting lawfully means going on trial.

The whole week Ukraine was flooded by anti-Russian hysteria. The tone was set by President Poroshenko. First, we saw his farce in Berlin, when he said that he needed to interrupt the visit, which was a one-day trip anyway.

Being in Kiev Poroshenko opens a meeting of the War Cabinet of the NSDC: "I have instructed the Deputy Head of the Administration to immediately bring this issue to the attention of the UN Security Council. And who will now dare to talk about lifting sanctions?".

Ukraine's top politicians rush to Donbass. It is a good opportunity for publicity. Prime Minister Vladimir Groisman is on board a military helicopter. Having arrived, he studies the terrain on the map and talks with injured residents in a deployed tent. Later, he holds a meeting on the spot. Groisman: "I'm here because I want to give you moral support, and we will support you with all the resources we have. I reiterate, that we will provide resources and funds. Please, set the tasks, we will implement them".

NSDC Secretary Aleksandr Turchynov also arrived in Donbass. The rhetoric remains the same. It is no secret that Russian forces control the occupied territory. But the loudest statement was made by the Deputy Minister of Defense. He, in fact, recognized that it was the Ukrainian troops that launched an offensive in Donbas. Today, however it may be, step by step, inch by inch, our men have heroically advanced. We see the confirmation that Ukrainian military openly violate the Minsk agreements and reports from the front lines on air of Ukrainian channels. How far have we moved forward in comparison to a month ago? We are closer than we used to be. We are regaining our land step by step. Kiev authorities have launched another military campaign, even disregarding the fact that the most important facilities are in danger, for example, the Avdeevka Coke Chemical Plant, one of the largest in Europe. It produces 30% of coke, the raw material needed for metallurgy. As a result, this huge facility is working in an emergency mode. Shootings damaged communications. We were able to connect to the natural gas. This allows us to keep the technology and the heating on minimal supply. Any mistake or a hit on one of the pipelines, gas pipelines or any other mechanism may lead to a full stop of the plant.

If the plant stops, a third of the metallurgical plants of Ukraine will also shut down. Ilyich Iron and Steel Works of Mariupol alone provides the state budget with half a billion dollars annually. It means that the whole industry will be on the verge of a collapse.



It seems that the rage towards Russia numbed Maidan government’s basic sense of self-preservation. Regardless of the consequences, every effort is made to portray Moscow as the aggressor in the eyes of Washington and Brussels. As for Ukraine, in the course of a little more than the past week it was displaying the tactics of slowly gaining the neutral zone. It seems to me that it ended up with a fiasco, because Kiev failed to gain any positive results, and it is quite difficult to explain to the public that Moscow is the cause of everything.

While the Maidan elite is trying in every way to remind Washington and Brussels of itself, extremists are having fun in Kiev. They carried out a series of attacks on Russian banks operating in Ukraine. A crowd of young men puts leaflets on the building and even on the board with currency exchange rates. The poster says "Welcome to Russia". The raid turns into a show with machine guns and balalaikas. Soldiers of the law enforcement agencies are standing aside. According to the norms of modern Ukraine, no one is breaking the rules.

At the time of a nationalistic revelry, banks consider additional security measures. This office does not operate during the weekends, but previously there was an ATM in this street. But now everything is closed with white metal doors, and people cannot withdraw money.

These are the graves on the Polish cemetery desecrated by Ukrainian nationalists. Monuments were doused with red paint and there was an attempt to destroy the stele. This Polish cemetery was opened in Kiev several years ago. The befouled memorial is being restored and cleaned up. It is not clear yet how long it will take.

There is another project from the Institute of National Remembrance, which is vigorously waging war with the history of Ukraine. This fresh initiative presented to the parliament suggests cancelling the celebration of events associated with the common Soviet history. The list of undesirable events includes International Women's Day, as well as May 1 and, of course, May 9.

Instead new dates are to appear in the Ukrainian festive calendar, for example, memorial day for the heroes of Krut. This is about a controversial episode of the Civil War, when Kiev students and school children were, in fact, put under the Bolsheviks' fire. Today it is a reason for a torchlight procession.