the civil war is over
putin decree ends so-called rebellion
western journalists have been telling us for years that the conflict in ukraine is partly a civil war involving separatists and rebels.
they have reported the crisis as if it was a domestic affair of ukraine brought on by language politics, identity clashes and historical grievances.
russian president vladimir putin put an end to the separatist-rebel narrative on april 24, 2019, simplifying the procedure for naturalizing residents of russia-occupied donbas as russian citizens. his assistant vladislav surkov said the decision was russia’s obligation to people in donbas who speak russian and think in the russian language.
there have been no (zero) acts of self-determination in any part of the country (including crimea) calling into question ukraine’s sovereignty over its territory.
if journalists want to substitute moscow’s judgement of the situation, then they must explain why. otherwise, they are kremlin stooges.