At the Heart of the Battle for East Ukraine, a Self-Appointed Mayor in a Hoodie

SLOVIANSK, Ukraine - Rock music from the "Greatest Soviet Songs" disc set blared in the background as a crowd of about 40 journalists formed around a small opening in stacks of sandbags and chain-link fence that divides the self-styled Sloviansk government from the outside world

The new mayor of Sloviansk was about to hold his daily press conference

The local government's press secretary, Stella Khorosheva, a svelte, white-haired woman in glasses, jeans and loafers, flitted in and out of the crowd, gathering journalists' press credentials and phone numbers as they filed slowly through the gates into the administration building Read more...