President Poroshenko’s power consolidation—and pushback against it—is the hallmark of Ukrainian politics heading toward elections in 2019. Yet reform progress is being made, even if the pace remains slow.

In the past year, Ukraine’s reform progress slowed as the president consolidated power and key decentralization reforms met opposition in the parliament.

Ukraine is in danger of repeating its experience after the 2004 Orange Revolution, when reformers won the vote in national elections but failed to govern effectively.

The biggest challenges facing Ukraine are its long-standing, systemic failures—a corrupt government and a political system dominated by big business.

Ukraine held local elections and made modest reform progress, while the economy improved slowly. But there are renewed concerns about the ceasefire in the east.

Despite the growing scale and scope of reform activity and increasing support for it, the overall effort appears to be suffering from a lack of strategic direction.

This memo offers a baseline assessment of the reform process as it stands a year and a half after the Euromaidan protests and the fall of Viktor Yanukovych’s government.