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As 60,000 fans filled Kyiv’s newly modernised Olympic Stadium in July for the Euro 2012 football championship final, it appeared in some ways to cement Ukraine’s membership of the European “family” of nations.  The country’s co-hosting of the tournament with Poland – the first time two former socialist bloc states have done so since the Berlin Wall fell – was widely deemed a success. It attracted hundreds of thousands of visitors, while the estimated $5bn Ukraine poured into infrastructure investments and other preparations will give the country a lasting boost.

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