Ukraine’s new president facing growing violence

Ukraine has elected a new president even as fighting against alleged Ukrainian pro-Russian rebels continued around the Donesk airport.

Lubomyr Luciuk (PhD) is a Ukrainian and military specialist in the Department of Political Science at the Royal Military College in Kingston Ontario.

President-elect Petro Poroshenko has had no time to enjoy his new position as Ukrainian air strikes began against pro-Russian rebels holding the Donetsk Airport

After declaring victory, he said he was eager to begin talks with Russian officials over the situation in the eastern part of Ukraine and Crimea, but would not negotiate with the “terrorists”

Professor Luciuk says President-elect Poroshenko appears to be a European-leaning politician but will be under great pressure and have his hands full dealing with the current political and military issues and the concern over a poor economy.

Luciuk also feels that frustration in attempting to deal with the Russians may even cause such tensions that the new government may itself fall. He says he is not optimistic, and that so far, it appears the situation in Ukraine may get worse before it gets better.

Meanwhile, he says the fact that a treaty with the US and Britain to provide stability to Ukraine’s territorial integrity has not held up. He says other states around the world may now feel that international guarantees by “western” nations, or Russian, are not be relied upon. This may mean instead of a reduction of nuclear weapons, they may in fact be increased as countries realize they may be on their own when it comes to defence issues.