In the frying pan of sultry Kyiv, the political temperature has also reached unusual heights for summer. After months of speculation, all the major political camps have made public their lists of candidates for parliamentary elections.
The vote on 28 October will show how effective the self-styled "opposition" to the increasingly authoritarian President Viktor Yanukovych really is.
As many disillusioned voters ask themselves: "who is the real opposition?" the motley crew deserves ...
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Andrew Rettman is EUobserver's foreign editor, writing about foreign and security issues since 2005. He is Polish, but grew up in the UK, and lives in Brussels. He has also written for The Guardian, The Times of London, and Intelligence Online.