“A strong army is a guarantee of peace”. Pre-election advertising for President Petro Poroshenko, Sloviansk. Photo: Gregor Fischer / DPA / PA Images. All rights reserved.
The seizure of Ukrainian ships in the Kerch strait on 25 November is not only yet another act of Russian aggression, as we understand it in Ukraine. It is reminder to the world that the annexation of Crimea is gradually becoming the new status quo in global politics; and western leaders have basically accepted this injustice. In turn, this is feeding the hawks in the Ukrainian authorities, who are trying to conserve power for the current kleptocratic elite by raising the stakes. This week, Ukraine’s parliament stopped the potential scenario of Ukraine sliding into authoritarianism, after the Security Council proposed introducing martial law across the country. This would, in effect, have cancelled the upcoming presidential elections on 31 March 2019. This situation has shown once again that Ukraine is like a swinging pendulum, where the prospect of reforms and strengthening democracy are constantly subject to risk of revanche and corrupt affairs.
The fate of democracy is being decided in Ukraine, a country that has undergone two revolutions in ten years, the reality of Russian occupation, and where the high-profile case against US political fixer Paul Manafort began.
