Russia's War Against Ukraine
OP-ED
Josh Cohen: In the battle between Ukraine and Russian separatists, shady private armies take the field
A masked pro-Russian gunman wearing a ribbon of Saint George guards at a check-point near the eastern Ukrainian city of Slavyansk on May 23, 2014, as people in a bus watch.
While the ceasefire agreement between the Ukrainian government and separatist rebels in the eastern part of the country seems largely to be holding, a recent showdown in Kiev between a Ukrainian oligarch and the government revealed one of the country's ongoing challenges: private military battalions that do not always operate under the central government's control.
