As a new ceasefire begins on Dec. 9 between Ukraine and pro-Russia separatists in the east of the country, the Kremlin plunged the political fate of the contested regions of Donetsk and Luhansk into uncertainty. According to the left-leaning Russian daily newspaper Novaya Gazeta, which cited officials within the Kremlin, sources within the cabinet of ministers and pro-Russian insurgents, Russia has abandoned the idea of either war-torn region becoming an independent state, instead preferring that both remain autonomous regions within Ukraine.
Russia's War Against Ukraine
International Business Times: Cash-strapped Russia won’t support Ukrainian separatist regions of Donetsk and Luhansk
A seperatist rebel fighter smokes a cigarette at a check-point on December 9, 2014 in the Kuibishevskiy district of the eastern Ukrainian city of Donetsk, which is controlled by pro-Russian rebels. Planned peace talks between Ukraine and pro-Russian rebels were postponed on December 9, but a ceasefire appeared to be largely holding along the frontline in the ex-Soviet republic's war-shattered east.
