Talking about Lugansk and Donetsk, Swiss Colonel Jacques Baud has a different view.

I wrote yesterday that I blamed Russians for all the people killed in fighting in the 'republics' of Lugansk and Donetsk. On the other hand, I should have remembered to add that Jacques Baud, a Swiss peacekeeper who was there in 2014, has a different view. I dismissed him when I understood from reading Toby Young that he had said that the 102,000 members of Ukraine's volunteer army were far-Right extremists, but this might be a misrepresentation.

Colonel Baud has antagonised the powers that be (call them what name you choose) by a long list of heterodox views.

I stick to my view that the Russians were responsible for the fighting in the two enclaves but wanted to add this for the sake of completeness.