Prague (from our correspondent) - Every new day of protests in Ukraine brings a threat of more deaths and of a political stalemate with no way out, said former Ukrainian Economy Minister Bohdan Danylyshyn in an interview with Czech Internet newspaper Aktualne.cz. However, he said that fears of an imminent civil war in Ukraine are groundless.
The ex-minister says that neither of the two sides is able to control the current situation in the country. "Neither the power structures nor the opposition have any idea of how to get out of the trap they have fallen into," he said. "If the leadership of the country is not in charge of the situation, they should admit it. But the opposition is part of the current state structure too, and when it admits that it is not able to control even its own voters, than it is useless."
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The ex-minister says that Ukraine needs a politician like Nelson Mandela or former Czechoslovak President Vaclav Havel. "European politicians keep asking me who should they talk to. They say they cannot understand what are the Ukrainians trying to achieve and who is leading them. Europe must understand what is going on."
The talks on Ukraine's future should be led not only by politicians, but also by representatives of the society, including the intellectual elite or the clergy, said the ex-minister.
"Maydan has completed its mission. It has become a driver of changes. But it has failed to produce a charismatic leader who would be able to lead Ukraine and implement reforms. (Maydan) is a mass demonstration that is unable to offer a platform to get the country out of the crisis."
The country needs radical systemic changes, says the ex-minister. "In the 22 years of independence, Ukraine has not really become independent. It is dependent on Soviet-era economic models. The political and economic crisis is the outcome of the fact that the current system has become outdated. The capacity of Soviet economic structures are getting exhausted, while no alternative has emerged yet."
Danlylyshyn served in the second government of Yulia Tymoshenko from 2007 to 2010. In the past three years, he has lived in exile in the Czech Republic. Tymoshenko has been imprisoned since 2011.
