Pessimists believe that Ukraine is on the verge of default.

Ukraine’s next president will inherit a nation in the throes of a spiraling economic crisis still searching for the bottoming out point.

The War once again showed that the Ukrainian leadership had dismally failed to take any steps to improve the country’s enormous energy inefficiency.

According to the president, the real decline in the country's gross domestic product (GDP) began in August. Aggregate production in September saw a decline from 10.9 per cent (August on August 2007) to 5.5 per cent (compared to September 2007).

It is pointless to debate about who was behind Yatsenyuk’s dismissal – Yushchenko or his alter-ego Baloha: if Yushchenko had not profited from his confidant, he would have long sacrificed him.

The Ukrainian leadership has once again proven to be helpless. Even the real threat of a catastrophic financial and economic crisis has not consolidated the key political leaders who still follow the principle of collective irresponsibility.

IGOR BURAKOVSKY

At present, in Russia-Ukraine relations the economic issues are of the greatest importance, at least, to Ukraine. The economic crisis has reduced the demand for goods including natural gas, which offers a problem to Ukraine since there is a contracted volume of the Russian gas that should be paid for.

DMITRY VYDRIN

Only a month ago influential businessmen were choosing between Viktor Yanukovych and Yuliya Tymoshenko to back him or her up at the presidential election. Now they offer their financial, social and media resources to Arseniy Yatsenuk who may make it into the second round of the presidential election leaving Yuliya Tymoshenko behind.

VADIM KARASYOV

The change of Ukrainians’ social and political attitudes is a natural course of things. During the crisis it's a sign of the sound political system, which is developing on the right track.

VALERY CHALIY

Ukraine doesn’t want to be affected by the problems caused by the U.S.-Russia bad relations. This is one of the reasons why Ukraine is to welcome the fact that the issue of cutbacks in the nuclear arsenal can become of importance to the U.S.A. and Russia again.

STANISLAV PRITCHIN

The Russia-Ukraine gas conflict, which took place in January, is of great importance to Ukraine’s politics in 2009. The presidential election will be held at the beginning of 2010, so all the major Ukrainian policy-makers use the conflict and its settlement for the further political struggle.

YULIYA TISHCHENKO

There are several deep-rooted causes for the President-Prime Minister confrontation in Ukraine. The first one is the presidential election is not far off. Yuliya Tymoshenko is one of the main potential presidential candidates and rivals of both Viktor Yushchenko and Viktor Yanukovych.

VITALY BALA

Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko's criticizing Yuliya Tymoshenko’s gas agreements with Russia at the meeting of the Council of National Security and Defense, which was held on February 10, 2009, indicates that the President’s fight against his political competitors has reached an inadmissible level.

YEVHEN KOPATKO, GRIGORY PEREPELITSA, ANDREY BLINOV

"I believe that Russia has done everything in its power to block Ukraine’s admission to NATO. Moscow regards Ukraine's non-accession to the NATO membership Action Plan as its victory", Grigory Perepelitsa.

Ukrainians are a hospitable nation, and that cannot be denied. To be sure, the people here don’t smile as a matter of civility, and service-industry workers are sometimes blunt to the point of rudeness. But anyone who has been invited to a Ukrainian home can attest to the warmth and attention with which their hosts invariably received them.

It sometimes seems difficult to believe, but it’s been almost five years since Ukraine underwent its Orange Revolution – an event that for many put the country on the world map. For others, however, the heady days of late 2004 were a big show that has ended in even bigger disappointments.

He first rose to national political prominence in 2002, when he was appointed Ukrainian prime minister under President Leonid Kuchma. Analysts immediately foresaw a shift in power toward the country’s so-called Donetsk clan, which Yanukovych represented.

We all know about the rise and fall of Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko. He was respected as the head of the National Bank, then trusted during his short stint as prime minister, and finally swept into the presidency during the country's Orange Revolution. It seemed like a fairy-tale political career - and indeed it was.

Ukraine is dangerously close to a sovereign default, the analysts are telling us. The currency has already dived to nearly half of its value of last summer, along with traded stocks. Worse yet, many of the nation's banks are expected to fail, taking down with them the hopes and savings of a fledgling consumer society.

One of the causes most often given for the start of World War One is the maze of bilateral treaties that had been signed between the European powers of the day. One country was obliged to declare war against another because it had signed a mutual defense pact to come to its ally’s aid in case of an attack.

The result of the Russia-Ukraine gas conflict, which broke out by tradition on New Year's Eve, is quite predictable – the Russian gas will be supplied to the European consumers but Gazprom’s reputation has been seriously tarnished. In one of the most severe winters Europe does not receive gas, and though Russia tries to shift the blame onto Ukraine (its state collapse is evident), Moscow is also responsible for the conflict.

For centuries, Ukraine's Cossacks were able to play off the superpowers of their time. Some would argue that the survival of the Ukrainian nation depended on a 'flexible' foreign policy. Unfortunately, the result of this policy was a culture of persistent internal division that eventually led to Russian domination.

A report recently released by U.S. intelligence agencies predicts that American influence on the global stage will diminish over the next 15 years, as the rise of powers such as China, India and other third-world giants creates a more multi-polar planet. So where does Ukraine fit into this scenario?

Now, more than any time since the country gained independence 17 years ago, Ukraine looks destined to come back under Russian hegemony. Ironically, the more the pro-Western administration of President Viktor Yushchenko resists this outcome, the greater the chances of it coming about.

Last weekend saw the visit of Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko to Moscow, where she met with Vladimir Putin for the first time since he went from being Russia’s president to heading his country’s government. During the joint press conference both premiers chose their words carefully, demonstrating the sensitivity of current Russian-Ukrainian relations.