Thousands more have moved to the United States and the European Union. Others have escaped illegally, mostly to Poland. The country reported a 100 percent increase in the number of detentions of illegal Ukrainian immigrants last year.
These émigrés are not only asylum seekers. They are the Western-leaning intelligentsia, the qualified members of society with relatives abroad, and the students of the
Ukraine has been hit by a severe Inflation, rising 25 percent in December. The hryvnia, Ukraine's national currency, lost two-thirds of its value against the dollar over the past year in 2014. This devaluation has crushed Ukrainians' purchasing power, particularly for western goods: the average monthly Ukrainian salary was $384 in January 2014. By December 2014, it was down to just $261.
Many of the people who have left Ukraine expressed that they have little faith in the new government.
A recent poll shows that President Petro Poroshenko's popularity has fallen below 50 percent for the first time since winning the election in May. As the economy and reform efforts falter, analysts are now questioning how long the government can survive.
