Taking a closer look at the State Department blog post, entitled "Russian Fiction the Sequel: 10 More False Claims About Ukraine," there's a few key takeaways. According to the State Department, there is a substantial amount of evidence that Russian troops and agents are activie inside mainland Ukraine, pro-Russian protests (and violent acts of pro-Russian militias) are orchestrated by the Kremlin, pro-Russian separatists do not have popular support (they don't), and Russian troops have not withdrawn from the border.
The State Department is no longer operating as if they are afraid of alienating Russia. And why should they? There aren't many observers of this situation who believe that there is any more good will between the US government and the Russian one, and so the US State Department can afford to be less-than-diplomatic because it has nothing to lose.
But because it has nothing to lose, it's not clear how harsh rhetoric alone, or even a careful debunking of Kremlin lies, will impact Russia's decisions. Earlier, the State Department spokesperson said that there would be costs to Russia's actions. So far, nobody is saying what those costs will be, or just how high a price Putin will have to pay for his actions in eastern Ukraine.
And ugly scene earlier in Kharkiv, a city which the ousted President often considered the center of his power, but a city that has held many pro-Ukraine protests over the last few days, and indeed even longer. Today, one of those protests was reportedly attacked by pro-Russian crowds.
According to the report, men wearing ST. George ribbons attackes the pro-Ukrainian protesters, while women who supported the pro-Russians abused the injured.
Vitaliy Zakharchenko, the former Interior Minister who was implicated in the deaths of over 100 civilians during the Maidan uprisings, also joined the ousted President Viktor Yanukovych on stage today:
A claim from the Russian state-owned media outlet ITAR-TASS:
Leaders of the Ukrainian anti-riot police unit Alfa have refused to obey the orders of the interim authorities in Kiev to storm the administrative buildings in the east Ukrainian cities of Donetsk and Luhansk, the local media reported on Friday.ITAR-TASS makes several interesting choices in language here. The Alfa anti-riot police are the infamous units that the Ukrainian Interior Ministry has said shot protesters in Maidan during February's uprising. Regardless, while there have been reports of police defecting today, we cannot independently verify this specific claim at this time.
"We are going to act in strict compliance with the law. Our unit has been set up to release hostages and fight terrorism," one of the Alfa leaders said.