Support for NATO membership is at an all-time high of 44% – the highest it has ever been was in the late 1990s (before the emergence of the anti-NATO and anti-American Party of Regions) when it was a third in favour. What polls also show is a decline of the number of Ukrainians who are against NATO membership from a very high figure under President Viktor Yanukovych to figures even lower than in the late 1990s when a third opposed. Read more
News organizations last week reported a new conclusion by US intelligence agencies that Russian forces massed on Ukraine’s eastern borders are increasingly likely to invade mainland Ukraine, only weeks after seizing Crimea. Russian President Vladimir Putin is determined to undermine the political legitimacy of a Ukrainian government that has shown itself insistent on aligning with the European Union rather than Russia. And that means derailing the May 25 election in which Ukraine will certainly choose a president who would pursue that European option. A successful election would unravel Putin’s argument that Viktor Yanukovych, who fled Ukraine last month into Russian exile, remains Ukraine’s legitimately elected president. Read more