NEWSWATCH: “Ukraine four years after the Maidan” – Brookings/Steven Pifer

Map of Ukraine, Including Crimea, and Neighbors, Including Russia

“… February 2014, following three months of demonstrations on Kyiv’s Maidan … (Independence Square) … Yanukovych fled … ultimately … to Russia. … February 22, 2014, Ukraine’s parliament appointed an acting president and acting prime minister … announc[ing] … intention[s] to press reforms and bring Ukraine closer to Europe. Four years later, Ukraine [is] in a low-intensity but still very real war with Russia. Russia seized Crimea and … prosecuted a conflict in … Donbas … claim[ing] more than 10,000 lives. … Poroshenko and his governments have implemented serious reforms [yet] the pace has slowed markedly. Many are particularly frustrated that more has not been done on the anti-corruption front. Ukraine … fac[es] two challenges: beating back Russian aggression, and completing … domestic reforms [to] make Ukraine compatible with European Union norms and draw foreign investment …. Kyiv cannot afford to focus just on the Russian threat; it has to solve both challenges….”

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