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Three years after the uprising in Kiev, Russia’s annexation of Crimea, and the beginning of the conflict in eastern Ukraine, much remains uncertain. Under Poroshenko, who has led the country since June 2014, the post-revolutionary government has done more than many at home or abroad give it credit for. Though his popularity has declined steadily, Poroshenko stabilized an economy in freefall, secured loans from the International Monetary Fund, prevented Russian-backed rebellions in vulnerable regions such as Odessa, and above all created a serious military force out of the weak and disorganized one he inherited. Russia, via its proxies, still controls parts of the east, but Ukraine’s soldiers have managed to stop them from taking more territory.
Meanwhile, closer relations with the European Union are beginning to yield rewards. On April 6, the European Parliament approved a bill that will allow Ukrainians to travel visa-free to Europe’s Schengen zone. If, this summer, Ukrainians do indeed begin to travel freely to most of Europe for the first time in their lives, that will be seen as a huge achievement of the revolution—and something to be envied by the ordinary citizens of Putin’s Russia.
Yet in other ways, the country has not moved on. Though the revolution was set off in part by disgust at the corruption and systematic abuses of power of the Yanukovych government, no senior officials from before or after the revolution have been tried for misusing funds or for the deaths of those shot during the revolt. In 2016, in Transparency International’s ranking of countries from least to most corrupt, Ukraine was tied with Russia in 131st place; it had hardly budged from the dismal position it occupied before the revolution. And now the Ukrainian authorities, led by Poroshenko, have begun a crackdown on anticorruption NGOs, calling into question how committed he and they are to deep and…
An excerpt from the story:
A man who didn’t know Nataliya Shkoda beat her severely because she admitted: “I am a lesbian.”
Shkoda, the civil partner of Halyna Kornienko, an adviser of Ministry of Social Policy of Ukraine, is yet another illustration how alien some Ukrainians are to the motto of this year’s Eurovision, chosen by Ukrainian organizers – “Celebrate Diversity.”
According to Anna Leonova, CEO of Gay Alliance of Ukraine, this situation is not “only about the anger and hatred that pushed this man to attack but also about the indifference of witnesses and police. We are told Ukrainian legislation protects us but what do we get in real?”
In a Facebook post on May 2, Kornienko accused police in negligence and indifference.
“My wife was beaten in front of a bunch of people and police was aiming to let the situation go. I don’t think it is a correct reaction,” she wrote.
The Kyiv Post could not reach her for the comment.
Here is today's map of the security situation in eastern Ukraine, according to the National Security and Defense Council:
An excerpt from the story:
Many Ukrainians refuse to buy Russian goods and services, but not members of the president’s family, it seems. The 16-year-old son of Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko, Mykhailo, the youngest of the president’s four children, has been seen wearing a Russian-made sweatshirt, with the word “Russia” printed on it, in a photograph posted on his Russian friend Sergey Kiziev’s Instagram account.
The photograph, first spotted and reposted on May 5 by Tabloid, a section of Ukrainian news website Ukrainska Pravda, shows Poroshenko posing with his friends wearing the sweatshirt. Although Poroshenko’s face is obscured, he can be identified by his sneakers, which he can be seen wearing in another photo where his face is clearly visible. Another photograph shows Kiziev wearing the sweatshirt himself.