Russia Skips Meeting With US, EU, Other Countries To Discuss 2016 Nuclear Security Summit

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1. Ukraine still has options to fight rebellion — all bad

KIEV – Ukraine’s government still has options after separatist elections showed its helplessness against a Russian-backed rebellion. The problem: they’re all bad.

Analysts and officials paint a grim scenario facing Ukraine’s pro-Western government as it ponders how to respond to the separatists’ tightening grip on the industrial southeastern Donbass region.

Sunday’s leadership elections — approved by Moscow despite intense Western pressure — were only the latest addition to a growing sense that rebel areas have slipped near permanently from Kiev’s control.

Recapturing rebel-held cities in Donbass like Donetsk and Luhansk is widely accepted as being beyond the small Ukrainian military’s capabilities. The rebels are no rag-tag force, boasting units that resemble a heavily armed, regular army — even if Moscow denies Western allegations that those units are in fact Russian soldiers.

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2014/11/04/world/politics-diplomacy-world/ukraine-still-options-fight-rebellion-bad/