Last week, the first round of the presidential election took place in Ukraine. This election campaign broke out the record not only in terms of the number of presidential candidates, but also in numbers of scandals involving names of top candidates for presidency. Ukrainian elections have not gone unnoticed by legendary hackers from the Anonymous group either. They posted e-mail messages of Vytaliy Kovalchuk, Poroshenko’s own campaign manager, online and opened up to the public all sorts of things concerning preparations of the Ukrainian president’s team for the upcoming elections. The e-mail correspondence between V. Kovalchuk and Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin about Kiev’s preparations for the next breakthrough in the area of the Kerch Strait, which had been blocked by Russia, raised particular interest of hackers.
It turned out that Poroshenko’s campaign team has been working extensively in the run-up to the elections on the issue of the Kerch Strait by attempting to secure support from European countries, including Germany mentioned in the correspondence. However, German officials chose not to take part in the operation prepared by Kiev and directed to the re-establishment of Ukraine’s presence in the Sea of Azov. Nevertheless, strong support from the USA is behind all these actions of Ukrainians. And the other day, Washington made just another statement about its readiness to stand with Ukraine to confront the continuing Russian aggression in the Black Sea. The US Permanent Representative to NATO Kay Bailey Hutchison revealed details of the so-called the Black Sea policy package aimed at deterring the actions of Russia in this region and ensuring the safe passage for Ukrainian ships through the Kerch Strait.
The feasibility of implementing this plan raises many questions. The correspondence makes it clear that the main aim of the operation is not to re-establish freedom of navigation in the Sea of Azov or to take care of interests of Ukraine and its citizens, but to emphasize the need to increase Poroshenko’s approval ratings as now it is necessary for him to eliminate a large gap between him and his rival candidate in the second round of the elections, that is showman and comedian Volodymyr Zelensky. It is obvious that ensuring safety and freedom of navigation in the Black Sea is one of the central issues for the entire world community. However, it is clear that these actions would only further escalate the conflict with Russia. Thus, rather than finding ways to a peaceful settlement of the problem through a constructive dialogue, NATO constitutes a threat to security and stability not only in this region, but throughout the world for the sake of its candidate’s victory in the elections in Ukraine.
