a quarrel in a faraway country
between people of whom we know nothing
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Russia without Ukraine is a country; |
During the Great War, Germany grabbed Ukraine
and Lenin took it back
During the Great Pariotic War, Germany grabbed Ukraine
and Stalin took it back
During the Winter Olympiad, Germany grabbed Ukraine
and Putin let it slip away
Politics - 2004-2013
The fraudulent conduct of the 2004 presidential elections resulted in massive but peaceful demonstrations - referred to commonly as the Orange Revolution - which brought Viktor Yushchenko to the Presidency, with support from Western Ukraine. The March 2006 parliamentary elections were the freest and fairest in the country's history. The Party of Regions, led by former Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych with support from Eastern Ukraine, garnered a plurality of votes and formed a majority coalition with the Socialist and Communist parties in the Rada (parliament), which allowed Yanukovych to become Prime Minister once again. However, accusations of vote-buying led Yushchenko to dismiss the parliament in April 2007.
Pre-term parliamentary elections in September 2007 were judged to be free and fair by international standards. Although Russia-leaning Party of Regions once again won a plurality, the Europe-leaning Bloc Yuliya Tymoshenko (BYuT) and the pro-Yushchenko Our Ukraine-People's Self-Defense bloc (OU-PSD) garnered enough seats in the Rada to form a narrow majority. Thus the main players in the government that took office in 2005 immediately after the Orange Revolution returned to power, including Tymoshenko as Prime Minister. Mutual recriminations between the President and Prime Minister quickly surfaced again in 2008.
Ukraine had been free of significant civil unrest or disorder since the November-December 2004 Orange Revolution. After President Yushchenko dissolved the Ukrainian Parliament in April 2007, there were large but peaceful street demonstrations which lasted for several months. President Yushchenko's decision to again dissolve the parliament in October 2008, resulted in scattered and much smaller (but peaceful) demonstrations. More recently, there were a number of political demonstrations with several hundred to several thousand participants in the center of Kyiv in the lead-up to the presidential elections in February 2010 which saw Viktor Yanukovych victorious over Yuliya Tymoshenko. In 2011 and 2012, there was an increase in the number of demonstrations in response to domestic political and economic issues. In late 2012, there were a number of minor demonstrations, fights, and protests in response to alleged falsifications during the parliamentarian elections in October 2012.
According to the results of a public opinion survey conducted by the Research & Branding Group, 20.8% of Ukrainians would vote for the incumbent President Viktor Yanukovych if the next presidential elections were held on Sunday, October 6. Further results reveal that: 11.7% of Ukrainians would vote for Leader of UDAR Party Vitali Klitschko; 10.9% for Leader of the Batkivschyna Party Yulia Tymoshenko; 6.3% for leader of the Batkivschyna faction in Parliament Arseniy Yatseniuk; Leader of the Communist Party of Ukraine Petro Symonenko would get 4.9% of the vote; independent MP Petro Poroshenko would poll 3.2%; and Leader of Svoboda Party Oleh Tiahnybok would poll 3.1%. At the same time, 11.5% of respondents said they would not go to the polls, 16.6% were undecided, and 7.9% said they would vote against all candidates. The survey was conducted by R&B Group in all regions of Ukraine on September 15-25, 2013. A total of 3,117 respondents aged over 18 years were polled. The margin of error is 2%.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said that it would be impossible for Ukraine to join a Moscow-led Customs Union if the country signs an association agreement with the European Union. “It will be impossible since such association stipulates the creation of a free-trade zone between the European Union and Ukraine,” Putin said 24 October 2013 at a session of the Supreme Eurasian Economic Council in Minsk. The EU reinforced the Russian zero-sum logic by stating that Ukraine had to choose between the EU agreement and the Moscow-led customs union. Putin has said that Russia will be obliged to use stiffer customs regulations to protect itself from a flood of European and Turkish goods that would be re-exported to Russia via Ukraine if trade with the EU were increased.
Ukraine's Cabinet said 21 November 2013 it was suspending preparations to sign the historic trade and cooperation agreement with the EU. The decision resulted in a multi-billion-dollar bailout from Russia that analysts said staved off near-certain bankruptcy for the impoverished country. Moscow offered Kiev a more attractive deal than what was on offer from Europe. Moscow needed Kiev more than Europe, and tended to view Europe's approach to Kiev as a third effort to grab Ukraine, after failed attempts in the Great War and World War II.
Pro-European protesters were angered by the turn toward Moscow and took to the streets of Kyiv, where they maintained a presence ever since. The decision triggered massive protests in the Ukrainian capital and some other large cities. The protesters initially demanded that President Viktor Yanukovich overturn his decision. But as the EU summit passed without a trade deal for Ukraine, they turned their anger on the government and demanded its resignation. As the confrontation continued, European and American politicians and top officials flocked to Ukraine to cheer up the opposition crowds and criticize the Yanukovich government for not following their demands.
French President Francois Hollande said October 02, 2015 local elections slated to be held in Ukraine this month will likely be postponed until 2016 amid Kyiv’s standoff with Russian-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine. The rebels were planning separate elections in territory under their control, which Western government said would violate the terms of a Ferbruary peace agreement that was signed in Minsk. The separatists' representatives in Donetsk and Luhansk have previously announced they would conduct on elections on their own terms on October 18 and November 1, respectively, without the involvement of the Ukrainian government.
The local elections began on Oct. 25, continued with runoff elections on Nov. 15 and ended on Nov. 29 with votes in two cities, Mariupol and Krasnoarmyisk, where problems forced a rescheduling of elections in both Donetsk Oblast municipalities. The local election results can be considered a win for Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko and his Solidarnist party. An analysis by the Rating sociological group shows that the Poroshenko allies got just 19 percent of the overall vote in Ukraine’s local elections and mayoral races. If accurate, that puts his forces ahead of others, but the results hardly constitute a resounding endorsement. Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk’s People’s Front party chose not to even put up candidates due to its dismal ratings.
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