Freeland: Why #RussiaInvadedUkraine matters

What makes the Ukrainian conflict consequential is that it is not a civil war. It
is an annexation of territory, the invasion of one European country by another.
As Carl Bildt, the Swedish foreign minister, argued in a speech in Berlin in June,
Europes entire security structure is built on the agreement that this would
never happen again.

By Chrystia Freeland* for the New York Times, Sep 5, 2014

Last week, Russias president, Vladimir V. Putin, said he could take Kyiv in two weeks. This
week, he disavowed a cease-fire, then proposed a peace plan. Now a cease-fire is in
effect. These zigzags did their job, leaving the West confused about his intentions, just as
the European Union and NATO were meeting to figure out how to counter them.

In the information war, Ukrainians have been striking back. When Russian soldiers openly
engaged Ukrainian forces at the end of August, a new hashtag began to trend on Twitter.
Invented by a Belorussian and enthusiastically promoted by Ukrainians,
#RussiaInvadedUkraine was used nearly a half a million times in the first few days. A week
later, it was still being posted hundreds of times an hour.

In this conflict, technologically driven activism has become characteristic. Ukraines Maidan
revolution began with a post on Facebook, and a nerd unit, staffed by volunteers who
are crowdsourcing the funding for their drones, is operating in the contested east. Whats
new and important about #RussiaInvadedUkraine is its clear language.

For complete text of the op-ed, link below:
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/06/opinion/chrystia-freeland-why-russiainvadedukraine-matters.html

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*Chrystia Freeland is the author of Sale of the Century: Russias Wild Ride From
Communism to Capitalism. Before becoming a Liberal member of the Canadian
Parliament, she had a lengthy career as one of Canadas most distinguished journalists.
Freeland comes from a well-known Ukrainian-Canadian family that has made considerable
contributions to Ukraines progress as an independent nation.