Alina Polyakova: 2016 will be a make it or break it year for Ukraine
A picture taken on Dec. 22, 2015 shows local residents receiving free wood briquettes delivered by the Red Cross in the village of Pischevik, in the Donetsk Oblast.
Two years ago, hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians braved the freezing temperatures on Kyiv's Maidan to protest. Since then, Ukraine has gone through almost too many crises to count: upheaval with the ousting of former President Viktor Yanukovych; Russian occupation of Crimea; a war with Russian forces in the Donbas that continues to simmer; and a contracting economy that shrunk by 7 percent in 2014 and 12 percent in 2015. One of these crises could have caused state collapse, but Ukraine has persevered.
