Battling The Invading Bear--Ukrainian Volunteers Prepare to Defend Mariupol (Picture)

by Monica Davis

The Ukrainain conflict has the potential to widen into a regional, even gglobal conflict, as opposition leaders get asassinated in  Russia and foreign nationals get arrested in their home countries after returning home from fighting in Ukraine.

The War  is still in a fluid state. Cease fires bounce around until one of the parties tires of the situation and violates the agreement. The conflict is drawing foreign fighters from around the world.  And their native countries aren’t too happy with the combatants. Many are geetting arrested when they return home. 

There is also  the threat from a global perspective: Fighters are returing to their home countries after fighting in Ukraine and face arrest, and they are bringing knowlege of insurrection, millitary tactics nd unrest with them.  .

Throw a little assassination into this volatile mix and the risk of more conflict and instability  increases.  Russian opposition leaders are getting  asassinated.  With fragile political alliances, meddling from Russians and the West, this is a nasty situation, which could morph into a regional, or even a global war. Spain has arrested  eight Spanish men who had returned to Spain after fighting with pro-Russian forces in Ukraine.  

Police have arrested eight Spanish men who returned from fighting alongside pro-Russia forces in eastern Ukraine, in what they said was the first operation of its kind in Europe.

Officers detained the suspects in six regions across Spain after they returned from predominantly Russian-speaking eastern Ukraine, the interior ministry said in a statement.  MOREHERE

The Red Cross says the war is official:

According to Western diplomats and officials, the Red Cross has made a confidential legal assessment that Ukraine is officially in a war. Such statement would open the door to possible war crimes prosecutions, including over the downing of Malaysia Airlines MH-17.

“Clearly it’s an international conflict and therefore this is most probably a war crime,” one Western diplomat said in Geneva.  MOREHERE

Is this turning into a quasi-Afghanistan situation, where foreign fighters from all over the world head to the region? Will the fighting spread and escalate?

Despite the ongoing ceasefire in Ukraine, soldiers in the city of Mariupol fear that pro-Russian separatists may be getting ready to attack. The separatists must take or encircle the city if they wish to gain land access to Crimea, which was annexed by Russia early last year. But Ukrainian forces, many of them volunteers, say they are determined to defend it.

On the hills overlooking the sea of Azov, soldiers of the Ukrainian army are digging in.

These trenches, bunkers and fighting positions are part of a network of defenses around Mariupol, a city which many fear is the next target in eastern Ukraine’s pro-Russian rebellion. Despite a ceasefire which began on February 15th, soldiers
Tens of thousands marched through Moscow to honor slain political activist Boris Nemtsov in the biggest show of support for Russia’s opposition in three years.

The city’s police estimated 21,000 people attended, while Golos, a non-profit monitoring organization, said more than 50,000 took part. Protesters, led by former Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov, chanted slogans such as “Russia without Putin” as they passed the bridge near St. Basil’s Cathedral where Nemtsov, 55, was shot dead Friday..  MOREHERE

And is the stability of Russia threatened? Does the assasssination of an opposition leader mean that Putin is solidifying his hold on Russia, or feels threatened by the opposition?

Tens of thousands marched through Moscow to honor slain political activist Boris Nemtsov in the biggest show of support for Russia’s opposition in three years.

The city’s police estimated 21,000 people attended, while Golos, a non-profit monitoring organization, said more than 50,000 took part. Protesters, led by former Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov, chanted slogans such as “Russia without Putin” as they passed the bridge near St. Basil’s Cathedral where Nemtsov, 55, was shot dead Friday. MOREHERE