Ukraine’s united opposition, Yulia Tymoshenko’s Batkivshchina (Fatherland) party and Arseniy Yatseniuk’s Front Zmin (Front for Change), held a congress on May 12 on the symbolic St. Sophia’s Cathedral Square in Kyiv. The congress released a detailed program for the upcoming October parliamentary elections.Boxing champion Vitaliy... MORE

With the salient exception of Georgia, NATO basically ignored its own immediate eastern neighborhood at NATO’ Chicago summit (May 20-21). Europe’s East – a “gray zone” of six countries bordering on NATO and the EU – faces a deepening security vacuum and Russian re-expansion. This... MORE

The Ukrainian government has chosen Shell and Chevron to develop its shale gas fields. Their first drilling results are expected in 2013-2014. Whether or not these results match expectations will be a test for Ukraine’s ability to cut its umbilical cord to Russian gas. Without... MORE

Although President Viktor Yanukovych publicly portrays his foreign policy as multi-vector – balancing between Russia and the West – in reality, there has been a substantial shift in Ukraine’s orientation toward Russia (see EDM, November 3, 2009, January 20, 2010, January 29, 2010). Yanukovych’s multi-vectorism... MORE

Ukraine’s two largest opposition parties – Fatherland, which is headed by the imprisoned former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, and the Front of Change (FZ) whose leader is the former parliamentary speaker and former foreign minister, Arseny Yatsenyuk – have agreed to join forces for the... MORE

The Ukrainian government is negotiating the issue of ruble-denominated government bonds, making the country no longer reliant on IMF assistance. Ukraine’s 2010 IMF assistance package of $15.6 billion was suspended in March 2011 because of Ukraine’s refusal to continue with IMF reforms, in particular raising... MORE

The Pechersky district court in Kyiv on April 12 sentenced Valery Ivashchenko, who was acting Minister of Defense from June 2009 until April 2010, to five years in jail. This is despite the European Union’s warnings that more persecution of ministers from the former government... MORE

In February 2012, Giorgi Baramidze, Deputy Prime Minister of Georgia and State Secretary for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration, revealed that Ukraine is continuing to supply weapons to Georgia. “Moscow’s position is not upheld by practically the entire world community. And, thank God, that Ukraine also... MORE

Ukrainian prosecutors announced last week that former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko (2005; 2007-2010) and former Prime Minister Pavlo Lazarenko (1996-1997) were suspected of commissioning several murders in the 1990s. This looks like a last-ditch attempt to influence public opinion – both at home, ahead of... MORE

The Ukraine-EU association and free trade agreement will not be concluded this year, Kyiv has admitted after only part of the text of the agreement was initialed in Brussels on March 30. Ukrainian Deputy Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin and EU negotiator Miroslav Lajcak initialed the... MORE