More reaction to Ukrainian oligarch Viktor Pinchuk's controversial commentary in The Wall Street Journal calling for reconciliation with Russia:
A tweet from RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service:
Meanwhile, judging from this Reuters report, it looks like Ukraine could be in for a hard winter:
An expected sharp fall in temperatures in Ukraine could damage the country's winter grain crops because of a lack of snow cover on the fields, analyst UkrAgroConsult said on Thursday.
Meteorologists forecast a cold snap starting on Jan. 6 and predict that air temperatures will fall on average to 13-17 degrees Celsius below zero, perhaps even to minus 20 degrees.
"The current level of snow cover is insufficient for reliable protection of winter crops against frosts harsher than minus 15 degrees lasting for five days," it said in a statement.
"Survival of the upcoming frost by winter crops will entirely depend on the amount of snowfall in this period."
Here is today's map of the latest situation in the Donbas conflict zone, according to the Ukrainian Defense Ministry:
Alexander J. Motyl, a professor of political science and a Ukrainian politics expert at Rutgers University, has written an interesting piece for Ozy on Six Myths About Corruption In Ukraine. Here's a taster:
When you think about Ukraine, corruption is probably the first word that comes to mind. It’s undermining the country, hollowing out the state, destroying society and preventing reform — or so the media says. Western newspapers are awash in headlines like “Why Ukraine Is Losing the War on Corruption” and “Corruption Is Killing Ukraine’s Economy.”
Concern is merited, of course, because corruption remains one of democratic Ukraine’s greatest challenges. But the hyperbolic language, and the implicit — sometimes explicit -- claim that Ukraine’s existence and transformation are incompatible with corruption, derives from six myths. Like all myths, these serve as convenient oversimplifications that overshadow the need for genuine understanding.
Read the entire article here