Probably a tool of Gazprom.
But the whole scene is full of bad actors.
I was opposed to the Russian annexation of Crimea and their incursion into Eastern Ukraine...I never bought into the Paulbot BS that Russia has a natural divine right to areas on its periphery (which by that logic we should annex Canada, Northern Mexico, Cuba and any Caribbean island wrongfully possessed by foreign devils!) or because there are people of your nationality living there (which in the case of Russia who in any of those former satellite states doesn't have Russian blood intermingled in their populace? Seize them all!)...and we as Americans being largely mutts...sh*t, we can annex the world!
But Paulbots always come up short on logic and long on anarchy and love kissing the Russian arse!
The Russian seizures resemble their Soviet days...and for that I condemn them. And at that time I would have armed them to the teeth. But Ukraine is fodder for Russian Imperial designs to control energy flow into Europe, they want to be the monopoly and as is their practice wield their control of this life-blood of modern society to impose political terms. I have no love of the EU, they are ass-clowns of the highest order, both should be kept out of Ukraine, but energy supplies and politics and old hatreds rule the day...so it is the Ukrainian people who suffer. The largest portion due to typical Russian bullying, next the meddling of Euro-statists and crony-capitalist...and to a lesser but significant extent poor internal leadership that plays off one or the other as a willing proxy to enjoy their position. It is a pity we could not arm the Ukrainians early on and have them attack both West and East!
Even the Clinton Money Laundering scam and the Uranium One scandal got caught up in this conflict!
It's a mess now, the best that could happen now is everybody settle the hell down, stop the BS and quit looking to get the upper hand...that just keeps the Ukrainian people in the meat-grinder paying the higher price!
The situation stinks to high heaven!