WITH violence in eastern Ukraine waning (for the moment), attention has tentatively turned to the country’s post-war contours. Both the government in Kiev and the separatists claim to be withdrawing heavy weaponry, following an agreement on September 20th to create a 30km (19 miles) buffer-zone, though clashes have continued in some places. Ukraine’s president, Petro Poroshenko, claims that “serious work” is under way to build a defensive line around rebel-controlled territory. No matter its final shape, Ukraine will be left with boorish new neighbours on its eastern flank.Directly west of Donetsk, the Dnipropetrovsk region is preparing for more trouble, including banditry, kidnapping and terror. Dnipropetrovsk officials have faced assassination attempts by “liquidation groups” from the Donbas in recent months, and criminals have begun arriving under the guise of refugees. Borys Filatov, a deputy governor of Dnipropetrovsk, speaks worryingly of a “Somalia scenario”, under which the Donbas becomes a swathe of ungoverned territory harbouring bandits who cross into the rest of Ukraine to raid, kidnap and steal. Another troubling precedent lies in...
from The Economist: Europe http://ift.tt/1reKIXZ
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