Ukrainian annexation is already happening

Nato and the EU are fearing a Russian invasion of eastern Ukraine. They have reason to be concerned, given that Russia would not blink to escalate while the West is still fumbling around on how best to respond. Brussels and Washington are in firefighting mode, while Russia chooses the when and the where. Annexation in the east, meanwhile, is already happening — not by force but through civil and economic ties. Military mobilisation looks like a sideshow, a distraction from what is really happening already: a slow annexation of the eastern quasi-independent republics. The pro-Russian regions of Donetsk and Luhansk declared independence from Kiev in 2014 but have never been recognised by Ukraine. 

Already there are hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians with Russian citizenship. Many of them voted in the Duma elections last year, online or in organised bus tours to the nearest Russian region. Some prominent Ukrainians even got a mandate in the Duma.

This week, Vladimir Putin signed a decree that allows products produced in those former republics to be traded in Russia with no restrictions, even allowing their purchase by the state sector.