Tangled Identities and Allegiances in Ukraine

Alexander Chekmenev’s national and ethnic identities have whipsawed during the upheavals since the collapse of the Soviet Union and right through the current crisis.

via Lens Blog: http://lens.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/05/15/tangled-identities-and-allegiances-in-ukraine/

Alexander Chekmenev began his mandatory military service in 1988 as a Russian citizen of the Soviet Union from eastern Ukraine’s Donbass region. By the time he left the army two years later – and after the collapse of the Soviet Union — he was an ethnic Russian and Ukrainian citizen.