Finally, elections: Today (Sunday) elections will be held in Ukraine, with the two main candidates being Petro Poroshenko and Yulia Tymoshenko.
Russia announced that it would respect the election results, but stressed that Ukraine is in the midst of a 'civil war'.
Ukraine has been in a political crisis and civil chaos since November last year, when President Yanukovych was ousted after his government rejected a broad economic cooperation agreement in favor of ties with Russia. Citizens claimed that Yanukovych was taking them back to Soviet times, took to the streets of Kiev, filling Independence Square - Yanukovych fled the country. Russia responded aggressively and Putin sent troops to the Crimean peninsula, which was re-annexed to Russia. The Russian intervention led to global diplomatic crises, and the United States called on Russia not to interfere in Ukrainian affairs.
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Ukraine is currently ruled by a pro-Western interim prime minister named Arseniy Yatsenyuk, who has declared: "We are determined that the elections that will be held will be fair and transparent." He added that he is aware that separatist forces in eastern Ukraine will try to disrupt the vote, but he believes that "the majority of residents will vote and not surrender to them.".
Yulia Tymoshenko, considered one of the symbols of the revolution after being imprisoned by ousted President Yanukovych, served as Prime Minister of Ukraine in 2005 and 2007, and is running against tycoon Petro Poroshenko, who made his fortune from candy manufacturing and is known as the 'Chocolate King'.
According to the polls published in Ukraine, Poroshenko is confidently leading over Tymoshenko, and he may win the election in the first round.
And what do the world say? Putin has accepted the axiom that Russia is to blame for what is happening in Ukraine. According to him, Ukraine is in a civil war and this has nothing to do with the country he heads. He emphasized that he will respect any result and work with the winning candidate.
German Chancellor Merkel called on Russia to respect the OSCE organization monitoring the elections and trust it to determine the identity of the winner.
