Ukraine’s competing elections: sorting fact from fiction

Ukraine’s new President Petro Poroshenko has the enormous tasks of rebuilding a battered economy and constructing a civil society – all while juggling relations with a giant, unpredictable and often hostile neighbour. A Security & Defence Agenda panel debated Ukraine and its future on 21 May, a few days before the presidential election, and presented scenarios for the country. On the one hand, the election could herald the start of a new, more successful era for Ukraine allowing the country more control over its destiny. On the other, Ukraine’s economic problems and corruption could lead to further instability.

“The country has to be brought together very quickly,” said Paul Quinn-Judge, Programme Director Europe and Central Asia at the International Crisis Group. “We have suggested it would be best to have a government of national unity – one which would be consciously formed from elements of all of Ukraine, linguistically, geographically and politically – with the exclusion of the Far Right.”

Full report available here