Pyotr Poroshenko’s four problems

... predecessor, refused to talk with the rebels and opted to use force to crush the uprising. The protesting citizens of Donbas were branded terrorists, and the government and the press launched a campaign to dehumanise and depersonalize them, coining derogatory terms such as “vatniki” (which means “padded jackets” in English – traditional Russian wear for cold weather associated with the working class; now often used in a defamatory way to describe people with strong pro-Russian ...