As a wobbly cease-fire keeps eastern Ukraine's warring factions apart, Russia's ruble is conquering new territory across the breakaway republics.
In Donetsk, the conflict zone's biggest city, supermarkets have opened ruble-only checkout counters to serve the fighters in camouflage lining up along pensioners. Bus and tram tickets come with a conversion from Ukraine's hryvnia to the Russian currency. Gas-station workers are paid in rubles because that is what their rebel customers use to fuel their armored jeeps.
The ruble's creeping advance shows how the troubled regions are slipping further from the government's grasp even as a peace accord brokered by Germany, France and Russia calls for the nation of more than 40 million to remain whole. Separatist officials have not yet made their currency plans clear. The precedent in ex-Soviet countries from Georgia to Moldova shows that similar shifts can help entrench pro-Russian insurgents.