Account of an acquaintance:

Mikheil Saakashvili had a rally here in Sumy today. It was very sad to hear what horrible shape this region is in. There is VERY high unemployment and many young people are going to Russia or elsewhere in order to find work.

Yanukovych closed many factories in this region because they would not support him in his race against Yulia and now Poroshenko is closing factories because they produce sugar and this is a source of competition for him. More proof that the President here couldn’t care less about his people.

He had a reasonably nice sized gathering considering the lousy weather. By the end of his talk, the feeling was that the Sumy Region’s future is extremely dismal.