The first of what is likely to be two polls to elect the president of Ukraine takes place tomorrow. The fate of peace in Europe might hang on the outcome

Ukraine is one of four countries that face hotly contested elections in the coming weeks. The others are Israel, Finland and Spain. But it is the one, given its strategic significance, whose absence from the headlines is least comprehensible.

The polls to elect a new president of Ukraine take place tomorrow. A great deal, including – it could be argued – the fate of peace in Europe, hangs on the outcome.
In common with many post-Soviet states, Ukraine relishes its elections, and this one has been especially keenly fought, with the incumbent, Petro Poroshenko, facing 38 other candidates, and an actor, Volodymyr Zelenskiy (pictured), who stars in a popular television series about a fictional president, now topping the polls. Main roads are festooned with colourful posters and the airwaves are abuzz with impassioned discussions and phone-ins.

Ukraine’s democracy has its flaws. There are the not-so-hidden hands of the country’s tycoons, its “oligarchs”, whose money flows into the electoral (and other) war chests of their favourites.