Ukraine's acting president, Oleksandr Turchynov, admitted on Wednesday that his government had lost control of two regions with a combined population of 6.6 million, more than 14 percent of the country's total. Even without a direct invasion, Russian President Vladimir Putin has managed to plunge the country into ungovernable chaos, using local elites and law enforcers in Ukraine's southeast to throw the interim government in Kiev off balance.
This all raises a troubling question: Can Putin undo the damage he has wrought?
"I want to say honestly: Today law enforcement agencies are unable to get the situation in the Donetsk and Lugansk regions under control," Turchynov told reporters.