Since the Orange Revolution in November-December 2004, there have been a growing number of attacks by extreme right groups against Westerners in Ukraine. These attacks are commonly blamed on "skinheads," but real skinheads have denied involvement, saying that their only targets are individuals with darker-colored... MORE

Ukraine took another key step toward closer relations with NATO with the disclosure of their intention to upgrade military communications to NATO standards. Major-General Volodymyr Rudyk, deputy chief of the Ukrainian General Staff, stated that the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense intends to replace the current,... MORE

Foreign investors are showing more interest in Ukraine since the Orange Revolution. Nevertheless, they remain cautious because of uncertainties surrounding the threat of re-privatization. Until this issue is resolved, something President Viktor Yushchenko supports but Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko opposes, Ukraine's positive international image will... MORE

Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko has failed to reconcile Red Army veterans with former fighters of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) on the 60th anniversary of the end of World War II in Europe. The Yushchenko government initially wanted all the veterans to march along Kyiv's... MORE

During the annual April 26 commemoration of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, Belarusian authorities detained several foreign nationals, including citizens of Russia and Ukraine. The arrests that occurred at one of the commemorations in Minsk have caused serious tensions with Kyiv, after the Belarusian authorities initially... MORE

Russian President Vladimir Putin's plans to purchase Leonid Brezhnev's residence in the Crimea have collapsed. USSR Dacha No.1, "Hlitsyniya," is among the Ukrainian properties excluded from privatization. Nevertheless, Putin attempted to acquire it from Ukrainian president Leonid Kuchma as a token of gratitude for supporting... MORE

Two weeks after Ukrayinska pravda (April 14) published an expose on Roman Zvarych, the Minister of Justice finally admitted in the Ukrainian Weekly (May 1) that he did not have the academic credentials that he claimed. Zvarych admitted that he had misled the Ukrainian Weekly... MORE

According to recent polls, Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko has greatly benefited from the Orange Revolution and the ensuing popular optimism. She and her Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc are very popular now, three months after she became prime minister and a year ahead of the next... MORE

In mid-April, the Supreme Court of Belarus ordered the closure of the Independent Institute of Social-Economic and Political Research. The institute's Russian-language acronym is NISEPI, though it is better known outside Belarus as NISEPS or IISEPS (Narodnaya volya, April 16). Its director, the respected sociologist... MORE

At the April 20-21 summit of NATO foreign ministers in Vilnius, Ukraine was invited to begin an Intensified Dialogue on Membership. The Intensified Dialogue is commonly viewed as the precursor to being invited to enter the Membership Action Plan (MAP) process, a stage that is... MORE