Election Candidates, Economic Impacts, and Healthcare Reforms in Ukraine

Ed Butler reports from Ukraine ahead of the presidential elections scheduled for the end of March. With endemic corruption and ongoing conflict with Russian-backed rebels in the east, what verdict will the voters give to the President Petro Poroshenko? Ed Butler speaks with MP Serhiy Leschenko who's recently left Poroshenko's Solidarity faction over concerns about corruption and nepotism.

Other candidates include the former Prime Minister Yulia Timoshenko and comedian and actor Volodymyr Zelensky. Olesia Verchenko from the Kyiv School of Economics says she has doubts about all of them.

And Deputy Minister of Health Pavlo Kovtoniuk explains measures taken within the healthcare service to clean up its act.

This programme was produced by Anna Noryskiewicz.

PHOTO: Anti-corruption protest in Kyiv, Ukraine. Copyright: Ed Butler, BBC