The Guardian - Ukrainian rebels grow restless amid cracks in alliance with Russia
Portraits of Putin and Stalin adorn the room where the rebel commander, Yuri “Rostov” Shevchenko, holds court.
In this former KGB complex in the industrial town of Alchevsk in the self-declared Luhansk People’s Republic, members of Shevchenko’s militant Ghost Brigade are growing restless as a shaky ceasefire holds in eastern Ukraine.
With their Russian backers turning their attention to the war in Syria, cracks are appearing in the rebels’ alliance with Moscow. The Kremlin is reportedly pressing the militants to put the conflict on ice, at least for the time being.
Some in the east feel abandoned, stuck between Syria and a ceasefire they are reluctant to respect. Fighters insist that the war is not over – it’s only the tactics that have changed.