The road from Donetsk to Mariupol offered a useful allegory for this part of Ukraine on Sunday, as the country elected a new president.
The first checkpoint at the edge of Donetsk, the de facto capital of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic, was manned by swaggering men in balaclavas carrying Kalashnikovs. Armed intimidation over a period of weeks ensured that not one polling station was able to open in the city of 1 million on Sunday. Across the Donetsk region, fewer than a quarter of all polling stations opened.
The next checkpoint, about 50 km to the south, was manned by troops from the Ukrainian army. A tank faced in each direction, as did the soldiers in a half dozen sandbagged positions. They had their cheeks pressed to the breeches of long-barreled rifles, or in one case a rocket propelled grenade launcher, which they trained on approaching vehicles. They were tense and no wonder: On Thursday, at least 16 Ukrainian soldiers were killed at a checkpoint near the town of Volnovukha, about three miles away.