By Kyle Herda

Impunity Watch Reporter, Europe

KIEV, Ukraine – Ukraine’s interim government will attempt to restore security to the unstable country through Presidential elections on May 25. A vote of more than 50 percent is required for a candidate to be elected; should no candidate receive greater than 50 percent of the vote, a run-off vote between the top two candidates on June 15 will determine the race. The current front-runner, billionaire Petro Poroshenko, served as foreign minister and economy minister, and supports Ukraine’s integration with the West.

The elections may stand to unite the country more through a leader elected by the people that the entire country has a say in, both the eastern pro-Russians and the western pro-Europeans. Or the elections may lead to further dissolution of the country if one side refuses to recognize the elected leader.

Ukraine troops remain active in the East as gunfire has already killed 24 Ukrainian servicemen. Most recently, an armed attack by pro-Russians on a checkpoint has let free a detained pro-Russian leader.

Residents in the Eastern region of Slovyansk, the center of the pro-Russian rebellion, have grown sick of the conflict and call for an end to the fighting. Resident Lina Sidorenko said the pro-Russians “must stop with this banditry so that there can be peace!” Another 300 Slovyansk residents shouted at Vyacheslav Ponomarev, the separatist leader in Slovyansk, that the fighting cannot continue.

Ukraine’s richest man, Rinat Akhmetov, also joined in the fight against pro-Russians in Slovyansk. “No one will frighten us, including those calling themselves a Donetsk People’s Republic,” Akhmetov declared. He urged his employees to attend protests against the pro-Russians, and a similar protest last week in Mariupol pushed pro-Russians out of government buildings they seized in the Black Sea port.

Two other regions of Ukraine seeing action are Donetsk and Luhansk, both of which had pro-Russian rebels declare independence from Ukraine through referendums in a similar fashion to Crimea.

Amidst this chaos in the East are security forces sent in by Kiev to take back buildings captured by pro-Russian rebels. Russia has asked Ukraine to remove these troops and called the security and military personnel destabilizers.

In response, Russia has what NATO estimates to be 40,000 Russian troops on the border outside of Ukraine. Other countries have called on Russia to move these forces and remove the threat of invasion, something Russia’s Defense Ministry claims to be working on. However, NATO has claimed there is no evidence that Russia has actually removed any troops or dismantled any camps along the border.

For more information, please see:

Reuters – RUSSIA SAYS UKRAINE ELECTION MAY AGGRAVATE CRISIS – 20 May 2014

NY Times – PRO-RUSSIAN REBELS IN UKRAINE FACE CITIZEN ANGER – 20 May 2014

Reuters – FACTBOX: LEADING CANDIDATES IN UKRAINE’S MAY 25 PRESIDENTIAL RACE – 20 May 2014

CNN – RUSSIAN TROOPS STILL AT UKRAINIAN BORDER DESPITE WITHDRAWAL PLEDGE, NATO SAYS – 19 May 2014

The Guardian – UKRAINE: PRO-RUSSIA SEPARATISTS SET FOR VICTORY IN EASTERN REGION REFERENDUM – 11 May 2014