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I lived there off and on for 3 years and can't figure it out.

Ukraine is a schizo nation, with the East side predominantly Russian blooded and language (even President Kuchma didn't speak Ukrainian when he was sworn in). The Western half (from the Dnepr river to the Moldavan border) is Ukrainian in blood and language. Ukrainian is the official language for everything, though the main train station does schedules in Ukrainian, Russian, and English.

President Kuchma is a gangster from Dnepropetrovsk, Ukraine's Pittsburg. He is implicated in murdering a journalist by the name of Gonadze, and also in having judges investigating the crime beaten.

Kuchma won re-election in '2000 through a huge banana republic election. People told me that they had to show their ballots to the officials or they couldn't even vote. Cities and districts that went against him had the lights and water shut off. Often for months at a time.

Kuchma is forbidden by the constitution from running again, his hand-picked successor Yanukovich is tied neck and neck with Yushchenko.

Yanukovich is the former governor of Donetsk, in the eastern Donbas coal district. He was born in Enakievo, an ex-con, and tied to other mobsters from the area.

Yushchenko is, on paper, cleaner, but has some interesting supporters: George Soros, Yulia (billions in her personal accounts) Timoshenko, and an ultra-right wing organization in the Crimea that traces its roots to a Nazi "werewolf" group that committed post-WW II terror in the Ukraine and Poland.

The East basically wants to rejoin Russia, which is blossoming economically. Many Ukrainians work in Russia, which should tell you how pathetic the Ukraine is. The West wants no more Russian history, thank you. No one, not even the Mongols, has killed more Ukrainians than the Russians, which is why the East Ukraine is pretty much empty of Ukrainians.

I'm going by memory here, and a lot of cheap Ukrainian gorilka may have screwed up the details ;-)