I've never been to Ukraine. My ancestors were from there-- Beyond the Pale, a phrase my grandfather never taught me but that Mick Jones of the Clash did; his ancestors were too. Last we checked in, the country was in turmoil and seemed headed right towards bloody civil war. Hundreds are already dead and thousands injured. Suddenly, this morning, things are looking up. The gangster president, Viktor Yanukovych, has fled Kiev and is either in Kharkov or in Mariupol (not Dubai), both near Russia, where, presumably, he'll go into exile and be granted asylum. His palace in Kiev has been overrun and former prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko-- thought by many to be the future president-- has been freed from prison. Downtown Kiev seems relatively calm, even festive in some places, as the security forces have withdrawn from the streets.
A newly empowered Parliament sacked the Minister of the Interior-- who has supposedly fled the country-- and gave the job to Arsen Avakov, one of the leaders of the protesters. Before leaving, Yanulovych agreed that he wouldn't call for a state of emergency and that he would allow the formation of a coalition government and early presidential elections (perhaps this summer but certainly before the end of the year).
The biggest obstacle to peace, though, isn't necessarily the government and the protestors, but the Yanukovych allied private militias on the one side and the violent extreme nationalists on the other side. It's unclear if the parliamentary forces will be able to keep these people in check-- or if Russia will fan the flames of national dismemberment (perhaps even grabbing the Crimea again). So far, Yanukovych is denying he resigned the presidency and is terming the situation in Kiev "a coup d' etat" and likening his countrymen to Nazis and "bandits." And neither John McCain nor Lindsey Graham have called for a no fly zone… so there's that.
UPDATE: Ukraine's Parliament Fires Yanukovych
Russia could send in troops to Kiev or just help Yanukovych consolidate power in the eastern part of the country, but 328 members of Parliament, out of 450, voted to remove Yanukovych from office a few minutes ago. He's calling it a coup and the threats are getting louder by the moment.
