NOT ENTIRELY A SURPRISE, BUT STILL:

According to Ukrainian intelligence, the separatist commander in eastern Ukraine heard in an intercepted phone call saying that his men “shot down a plane” on Thursday was Igor Bezler.

The picture of Mr. Bezler used in the Ukrainian YouTube video on Thursday is a still image taken from a clip uploaded in April, when he was recorded during the rebel takeover of the town of Horlivka where he identified himself to police officers there as “a lieutenant colonel in the Russian Army.”

It’s Potemkin separatists all the way down.