JRL NEWSWATCH: “Kharkiv’s pro-Russian protesters still mistrustful of Kiev; Some in Kharkiv see Ukrainian government as ‘illegitimate’ and will not vote in Sunday’s presidential elections” – Aljazeera/ Tamila Varshalomidze
“… Pro-European demonstrations born in 2013 on Kiev’s Independence Square – known as the Maidan protests – were copied in the country’s second-largest city, but … crowds were never more than about 300 people. … [A] sprawling pro-Russian protest camp occupied the central square in 2014 with Russian flags on display. … The differences that led to the split in the society in many parts of Ukraine do not seem to have been addressed. … * * * According to the American Chamber of Commerce in Ukraine, approximately five million Ukrainians, about 25 percent of the country’s economically active population, work abroad. But the biggest problem on voters’ minds is the country’s crippling corruption. … Ukraine’s presidential election is scheduled for March 31 with a record number of candidates …. According to opinion polls, Poroshenko is trailing in the third spot behind opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko and the frontrunner, comedian Volodymyr Zelensky.”