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Ukraine needs better balancing to suture social split

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The mass demonstrations in the Ukrainian capital of Kiev are showing no signs of easing, as the opposition has refused to clear the streets while pro-government supporters continue to gather.

A protester waves a flag of Ukraine as he greets protesters from a car during a rally on Mykhayllivska Square in Kiev on November 30, 2013.[Xinhua photo]

The spark that ignited the tension, namely the Ukrainian government's decision to suspend preparations for an association treaty with the European Union (EU), may lead to chaos, some Russian experts warned.

Division between East and West

Ukraine's political problems have laid bare a division between the country's west and east.

Western Ukraine historically gravitates to Poland, while the residents in the east are indistinguishable from those in neighboring Russia, Vladimir Zharikhin, deputy director of the Moscow-based Commonwealth of Independent States Institute, told Xinhua in a recent interview.

The Ukrainians cry for national identity, said Andrei Suzdaltsev, vice dean of Moscow's Higher School of Economics. "Their culture and identity have been imposed by either the Austro-Hungarian Empire or by the Russian Empire."

The current turmoil erupted because, after 20 years of independence, Ukraine has failed to produce its own economic and political model, Suzdaltsev stressed.

"For that, they have to solve many problems -- language problems, national identity problems -- and find reliable allies," he said.

Zharikhin said that the division in Ukraine also mirrors the rivalry between Russia and some EU countries on a larger scale.

"Contradictory interests of world powers have now crossed into Ukraine," he stressed, saying that "the recent events are just a particular example of a wider standoff between Moscow and some EU countries that are determined to tear Ukraine off Russia."

The worst-case scenario would see Ukraine ripped into two halves if a certain line was crossed, he warned.

In fact, since the numbers of opposition and pro-government supporters in Ukraine are approximately equal, the very existence of the Ukrainian society as a whole might be under threat, the experts said.

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