Minsk agreement in shambles

Макроэкономика 23.02.2015 After a ceasefire agreement that did not survive a couple of days, a threat of terrorism across Ukraine has emerged. At midday on Sunday, three people were killed and up to ten were hospitalized after an unknown device exploded in the otherwise peaceful city of Kharkiv. The State security office and Interior Ministry reported yesterday that they apprehended several people who allegedly took part in the bombing. Over the past year, the threat has been growing. Although several explosions have occurred across the country's southeast in cities including Kharkiv, Odesa, and Izmail, there were no fatalities. Prior to 2014, one abnormal incident occurred in the city of Dnepropetrovsk a few years ago, but the act was disregarded as a terrorist act because the city at the time was politically passive. Meanwhile, over most of this past year, underground metro stations in Kiev have routinely been closed because authorities received false bomb threat telephone calls. The most recent incident was clearly a terrorist attack. Ukraine's security service reported a high likelihood that the fingerprints on the bomb devices belonged to Russian security people who would deny such an allegation. The bombing illustrates that the Kremlin is eager to destabilize large cities and spawn public fear.