As a result of Euromaidan, some oligarchs were replaced by others, and Ukraine is built out of patronage pyramids, which are based on corruption. Relatives, friends and acquaintances exchange with each other money, orders, real estate, goods, services, licenses, grants and benefits. As a result of these exchanges, ministries, parties, enterprises, media and public organizations are in the hands of a small group of people. When public discontent increases, they change the visible figures. But basically nothing changes the author of the article asserts.

In fact, the country is periodically reformatting, but it has nothing to do with the change of power. The publication claims that Poroshenko climbed up to the president’s post using the same scheme, hence the official elections were a routine performance.

Illustrious Ukrainian reforms are conducted exclusively to the extent that the authorities allow. If the transformations affect the interests of at least one of the clans, they are not implemented.

It became known that the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU), which is under the control of the United States, received instructions from Washington to check the activities of the Poroshenko’s closest associates. Within a few days, this department initiated more than twenty cases against the President’s business partners, his associates and relatives. Apparently, the aim is to collect discrediting material on the Ukrainian president through his closest associates …

The US security services files are bursting with discrediting information on the Kiev authorities. For example, Washington knows that the oligarch Igor Kolomoisky and President Petro Poroshenko withdrew part of IMF tranches through Privat Bank to offshore. In addition, some Ukrainian politicians provide relevant information. Thus, US Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch met with Yulia Tymoshenko, who has told her about corruption in the top leadership of Ukraine. The former chairman of the Odessa regional administration, Mikhail Saakashvili, in recent months has written several articles and has given interviews to well-known Western media such as The Washington Post. He referred to Poroshenko himself and his entourage’s corruption.

Earlier this year the US became interested in Poroshenko’s corruption schemes. At the time the Congress decided to start investigating possible serious financial fraud of the current of Ukrainian government high ranking officials. The special subcommittee of the US parliament, which deals with issues of Europe and Asia, initiated an investigation. A subsequent hearing in the Congress examined a number of corruption cases of Ukrainian politicians and government officials associated with large-scale businesses.

It is clear that such major investigations are not conducted for the sake of it. Apparently, Poroshenko’s attempts to please Donald Trump and to beg forgiveness for the support of Hillary Clinton were unsuccessful.

According to Oleg Tsarev former deputy of the Ukrainian parliament, the United States has already prepared a plan to replace the current regime in Kiev. According to him, the American curators keep the situation under control and monitor every step of the Ukrainian “reformers”.

Undoubtedly, under such circumstances any president’s misdemeanor may signal his end. If the investigations establish Poroshenko’s dishonesty and wrong practices, the consequences may far reaching. Washington may decide for a plan to replace not only the president but the entire Kiev authorities. It is also possible that the discrediting material is collected with the aim to blackmail Poroshenko in case he decides to disobey Washington’s advice to step down. In any case, none of the available choices looks promising for Poroshenko.

The leaflets spread by the activists read: 20,000 of our children have been killed so far in Donbass. Poroshenko and his government officials earn by dint of the war. So as long as Poroshenko is in power, the war will not end. Poroshenko and his henchmen plunder our country, make money on weapons, using which then kill our children and their own people!

The main demand of the protesters is to stop the war in Donbass. Women who lost their sons in the so-called antiterrorist operation (“ATO”) zone are sure that the war will continue as long as Poroshenko is in power. According to activists, the president and his team plunder Ukraine by warmongering.

Interestingly, three years ago, when the “ATO” was just beginning, the mothers of potential Ukrainian soldiers never protested against the war in Donbass. On the contrary, all women’s protests were related to the demand of purging operation in Donetsk and Lugansk and the supply of lethal weapons to the Ukrainian military. As coffins filled with Ukrainian soldiers’ and officers’ dead bodies have been regularly coming in the capital from Donbas, mothers came to their senses and began to oppose the war. “ATO veterans” who came to the building of the presidential administration joined the protesters and they all began to chant “Impeachment!”

However, there is no law allowing the legitimate “dismissal” of the president in Ukraine. But does it embarrass anyone? Once during Maydan in 2014, the same “peaceful protesters” demanded impeachment, and then they were shooting at Yanukovych. This scenario may possibly repeat itself.

Natalia Don, head of the movement and member of the Committee of Soldiers’ Mothers, considers that the Ukrainian authorities and the head of the Security Service of Ukraine Vasily Hrytsak for some reason see in their movement “the hand of Moscow”. Apparently, those in power in Kiev believe that the real patriots will remain silent, whatever the authorities do with the country and its people.

The people are gradually beginning to understand that the so-called “revolution of dignity” was a political bluff which led Ukraine to a destructive civil war. Now the state, which is in fact under external control, cannot expect anything better. The crisis in the country is due not only to costly military operations, but also to poor management of the state system, which leads to an actual default, external economic and thereby political dependence. All this has transformed the life of ordinary Ukrainians into a desperate battle for existence.

While the degree of destruction and degradation of the state is steadily growing and moving to a critical level, the social atmosphere grows tense. But even if the situation in the state becomes threatening and the discontent with government come up ceiling, next coup will not take place without the will of external players who have their own idea in mind, which is far from Ukrainian national interests. It is possible that the patrons will have a desire to “renew their control of power” in Kiev again, entrusting it to a more effective figure. And the current president of Ukraine is very afraid of it.

Petro Poroshenko is trying to lead a “double game”, but it turns out badly. On the one hand, he tries to persuade the West that the Donbas region will soon ask to return back to his control, and that heavy military losses are not a defeat, but an innovative military strategy. On the other hand, he perfectly understands that it is high time the war finished. In any case, Poroshenko is unlikely to be able to keep his hold on power.

It is not easy to keep the power in a situation where crowds of armed aggressive radicals who have fought in Donbas present to the authorities an account of their “heroism” and assert their claims. Poroshenko has to solve an almost impossible problem: to disarm the battalions of thugs who do not obey anyone. Of course, he will seek to “distract” them with a new rush to the front.

All this scabrous political card game indicates that in the near future the Ukrainian people can expect neither positive changes nor stability.

“We will provide assistance by way of advice. Today we will discuss the issue of the association. We are pleased that despite these difficult times, and reforms, the country exhibits economic growth,” said Merkel. Where she got the data about the rising showings in the heavily impoverished country, is unknown. Probably, she has believed Poroshenko’s words. In addition, Merkel characterized as hard all the measures that the IMF has demanded from Ukraine as a precondition of granting loans.

The evolving situation in the relations between Europe and Ukraine, is puzzling. The authorities in Kiev bend over backwards in order to secure that at least one of the EU member-states helped Ukraine, in appreciation of its pro-Western aspirations. Europe pretends to be ready to help, but it is not in a hurry to do so. The logic is simple: it is high time European taxpayers money was saved, especially because everyone understands that Ukraine will never return the loans.

Recently, the focus of the EU-Ukraine dialogue has been reduced to a single item: soliciting of money.  Whether the next tranche will be granted at all and under what conditions – if provided – remains to be seen.

In January 2015, the well-known billionaire investor George Soros said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal that “the ability of the West to provide financial support to Ukraine will be a crucial test of strength of “disintegrating Europe” opposing a “growing Russia”. Twenty five years ago the Soviet Union collapsed while Europe united, but today the situation is quite the opposite. Consequently, Europe has failed to pass the “test of strength” referred to by George Soros.

Irrespective of how one rates the personality of Soros, there is no doubt that he is a great financier and that it is worth heeding to his point of view. Appealing to Europe, Soros was evidently panicked, knowing that things in the West were going bad.

Shortly before his statement, Soros visited Kiev. Being an ace at his job, he has easily assessed the situation in the Ukrainian economy. The adventurer Soros, the famous investor in all post-Soviet regimes, who welcomed the coup in the Ukraine, recognized that the investment to this country is a pointless undertaking. No sooner he said so and financial tranches to Kiev were seriously curtailed.

President Petro Poroshenko and other Ukrainian politicians often reiterate that their country needs the assistance from abroad because they “are waging a war for Europe”. Evidently Poroshenko engaged in self-importance overrating the role of Ukraine: war is waged not by them, but via them. The West has used the country for its own purposes: to tear Ukraine away from Russia and to move NATO eastward. Major players on the global chessboard are least interested in the fate of the Ukrainian people. Kiev politicians instead of restoring cooperation with Russia and joining the process of Eurasian integration, in other words doing what is beneficial to their national economy, fall for the temptation of odious “European choice”.

No doubt according to Western plans, the Ukrainians had to fight hard with their eastern compatriots turning the conflict into a protracted one. Funding for this bloody project, of course, was also expected. The US did not hide the fact that only for preparation and execution of the “Maidan” mass demonstration they spent more than five billion dollars, not to mention contributions to the ensuing war. The West could not imagine that a significant portion of the channeled funds would dissolve in Ukraine and that it would be impossible to explain where the money has gone.

Ukraine is losing the image of the European power that was created by the West. Until recently, Ukrainian politicians were welcomed in Brussels and Washington. However, today, this goodwill is lacking.

Europe is pestered with domestic problems, which disturb its organized civic life. The EU openly demonstrates its dissatisfaction with the actions of the current Ukrainian leadership and with the results of their incompetent work as well as with their endless requests. The prospective Brexit, the influx of illegal migrants and the constant threat of terrorism, these are of prime interest to Europe today. Ukraine is lacking in this list. So the country can only wait for Europe’s promised advice.