UKRAINE UPDATE – AT 11:56 A.M. ET:   Ukraine continues to slide toward disaster.  From Reuters: 

KRAMATORSK/ODESSA, Ukraine (Reuters) - Both sides have been burying their dead as Ukraine slides further towards war, with supporters of Russia and of a united Ukraine accusing each other of tearing the country apart.

Tuesday morning was quieter than past days in eastern and southern Ukraine, but the deadliest week since the separatist uprising began has transformed the conflict, hardening positions and leaving little room for peace.

In Kramatorsk, a separatist-held town in the east that saw an advance by Ukrainian troops at the weekend, the coffin of 21-year-old nurse Yulia Izotova was carried through streets stilled by barricades of tires and tree trunks on Monday. Scattered red carnations traced the route.

At the Holy Trinity Church, seven priests led mourners in prayer for a woman killed by large caliber bullets, which the townsfolk believe were fired by Ukrainian troops.

"They shoot at us. Why? Because we don't want to live with fascists?" asked 58-year-old passport photographer Sergei Fominsky, standing with his wife among the mourners. "We're not slaves. We kneel to no one."

In Odessa, a previously peaceful, multi-ethnic Black Sea port where more than 40 people were killed on Friday in the worst day of violence since a February revolt toppled Ukraine's pro-Russian president, pall-bearers carried Andrey Biryukov's open casket from a van to the street corner where he was shot.

COMMENT:  This is truly an "on the brink" situation.  It would be easy for Russia to find a "provocation" in all this combat, and move into Ukraine militarily.  I don't really think we'd have much of an answer.  Western Europe is making clear that it isn't prepared to restrain the Russians because of commercial ties.  Euros talk. 

Meanwhile, the big story at the White House today is global warming, one of the old liberal stand-bys.  Ukraine?  Where's that at?

May 6, 2014