Photo Gallery 'We Are Thinking Back to 1914'
The Ukrainian army begins "anti-terrorist" operations in Slovyansk in eastern Ukraine on April 24. Europeans are deeply worried about the frightening possibility of a civil war in Ukraine.
A Ukrainian soldier stands guard near the Kramatorsk airport in eastern Ukraine on April 25. The hope that Russian President Vladimir Putin would limit his actions to the Crimean peninsula proved to be illusory.
Here, pro-Ukrainian supporters attend a rally in Lugansk, in eastern Ukraine, on April 24. At least five people were killed in clashes that day between government forces and pro-Russian separatists in the region. "An attack against Russians is an attack against Russia," Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov warned last week.
Many Ukrainians are bracing for the worst, and politicians in the West fear a bloody scenario is brewing in Ukraine. Here, other pro-Ukrainian protesters are seen at a rally in Donetsk on Monday.
Members of the Ukrainian army attack the barricades of pro-Russian separatists in Slovyansk. Burning barricades evoked impressions that a civil war might be taking shape.
Here, a pro-Russian supporter wearing a balaclava and holding a baseball bat sits next to piles of bricks and tires outside a regional government building in Donetsk.
A pro-Russian woman holds a Russian flag outside a regional government building in Donetsk in eastern Ukraine. Only a week ago, the German government had been confident that the agreements reached in Geneva to defuse the crisis would bear fruit and that de-escalation had begun. Now goverment sources in Berlin warn that we have returned to a "phase of escalation."
On Wednesday, Russian long-range bombers entered into Dutch airspace -- it wasn't the first time something like that had happened, but now it felt like a warning to the West. Don't be so sure of yourselves, the message seemed to be, conjuring up the possibility of a larger war.
NATO mine-hunting ships can be seen setting sail from Kiel, Germany, last Tuesday as they were deployed to the Baltic region.
Here, the first of 600 American troops (right) being dispatched to Poland and the Baltic states can be seen arriving last Wednesday. They appear together with Polish troops (left).
The Russians have also been engaging in maneuvers with soldiers near the country's border with Ukraine. So far, diplomatic efforts have failed, and Putin appears to have no fear of the economic losses that Western sanctions could bring. As of last week, the lunacy of war is no longer inconceivable.
Many are asking if Russian President Vladimir Putin be stopped. Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk spoke of a "worst-case scenario" that now appears possible, including civil war and waves of refugees. Ukrainian interim Prime Minister Arseniy Yasenyuk has even gone so far as to claim that "Russia wants to start a Third World War."
Events on Friday demonstrated just how quickly a country can be pulled into this conflict. Pro-Russian separatists seized control of a bus carrying observers with the Office of Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) and detained the officials, including four Germans. They are shown here in a press conference organized by Vyacheslav Ponomaryov, the self-proclaimed "people's mayor" of the eastern Ukrainian conflict city of Slavyansk. Germany and other countries have demanded the observers' release.
Here, protesters can be seen during the April 23 Petersburg Dialogue in Leipzig, Germany, holding up a banner that reads: "Putin! Get Your Hands Off Ukraine!" According to the latest polls, three-quarters of Germans oppose NATO intervention in the crisis.
Here, Ukrainian troops are seen holding guard about 30 kilometers from Slavyansk. In Germany and Western Europe, fears of the worst are growing. "With threats of war, flexing of military muscles and increasingly aggressive rhetoric, Christians around the world are viewing this conflict with the deepest concern," says Nikolaus Schneider, chairman of the Evangelical Church in Germany (EKG). "As the Protestant Church in Germany, in 2014," he says, "we are thinking very intensely back to 1914" -- the year World War I broke out.
