While the Ukraine civil war itself is in a state of ceasefire, there are growing fears that the unrest could be expanding outside of the war zone, after a bombing hit a protest rally in Kharkiv.
The rally was held in favor of last year’s protester-fueled regime change in Kiev, and witnesses reported a car drove by the rally and threw an explosive device into the crowd, killing three and wounding 10 others.
Rallies in favor of regime change were without incident in Ukraine’s west, but Kharkiv is something of a specific case, as it was originally part of the eastern rebellion before being quickly overrun by the Ukrainian military.
Kharkiv has a significant ethnic Russian minority sympathetic to the rebels, as well as supporters of the new pro-West government. Whether today’s bombing is a one-off incident or sign of things to come remains to be seen.
Which begs the question, can we ever be free of terrorism so long as the corporate rich use government and poverty as tools of slavery?