The city of Yenakiieve, northeast of Donetsk, was founded more than a century ago around a steel mill. Some 10,000 people work at the steel mill, and the company that owns it operates the most modern rolling mill in Ukraine. But as of March, the mill became a thing of the past.
On the morning of March 1, armed men arrived at the plant, demanding that management submit to the regime of the “Donetsk People‘s Republic.” If they refused, the men said, “legal and physical measures” would be taken against management and employees. What seemed like a farce at first would prove to be a major political move. In doing so, the pro-Russian separatists in the eastern Ukrainian People‘s Republics of Donetsk and Luhansk have divided the country even further.
