For a brief moment it seemed that eastern Ukraine’s slide into conflict might be halted. A deal struck in Geneva on April 17th between Russia, the United States, the European Union and Ukraine called for illegally occupied buildings to be vacated and armed groups to give up their weapons. But Denis Pushilin, head of the self-proclaimed People’s Republic of Donetsk, brushed it off, saying that, since the Ukrainian government was illegal, only if it left its buildings would his people do so.
Economist: A deal in Geneva fails on the ground
A member of the Ukrainian special forces takes position at an abandoned roadblock in the eastern Ukrainian city of Sloviansk on April 24, 2014.
