JRL NEWSWATCH: “Putin’s war is transforming Ukraine” – Washington Post/Anne Applebaum

September 24, 2018 JRL Russia List JRL NewsBlog, Ukraine, Russo-Ukrainian War

Map of Ukraine, Including Crimea, and Neighbors, Including Russia

“… [I]ntegration of … Donetsk refugees into schools and communities in the central and western parts of the country is … part of a broader story: the integration of the war into the consciousness of Ukrainians. … the Russian-Ukrainian war continues. One of the Russian-backed separatist leaders was killed in a bomb attack in August. Skirmishes take place most days, and soldiers on both sides die most weeks; there have been more than 10,000 casualties since 2014. Some of Lviv’s baroque churches have chapels dedicated to the victims. Slowly, the never-ending conflict is altering attitudes … what a[n] … Atlantic Council report … called ‘the geopolitical divorce of the century’: the separation of two countries that have been part of the same empire for centuries. Trade between Ukraine and Russia … has plunged, replaced in Ukraine by trade with Europe and the rest of the world. India, not Russia, is now the largest buyer of Ukrainian food. Ancient religious links … are dying too: The Ukrainian Orthodox Church has now formally split from Moscow. … personal ties are fading: With travel now limited by bans on direct flights between the two countries, Ukrainians are less likely to live and work in Russia … more likely to go to Poland …. Russian cultural influence, once all-powerful, is also disappearing, partly thanks to official decisions. …”