Western policymakers and Ukrainian experts are perplexed as to why President Viktor Yanukovych agreed to the court quickly sentencing Yulia Tymoshenko on October 11 to a seven year sentence, a three year ban from political life and a fine of 1.5 billion hryvnia ($190 million).... MORE

Ukraine has signed a free trade agreement with the CIS and completed its free trade talks with the EU. Unlike membership of the Customs Union (Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan), which Moscow keeps inviting Kyiv to join, the CIS free trade accord does not formally hinder... MORE

Ukraine has made considerable progress in the free trade talks with the EU during the past several months. Kyiv and Brussels are planning to sign an association and free trade agreement in December 2011, as the free trade talks were completed in Brussels on October... MORE

The October 11 sentencing of Yulia Tymoshenko to seven years imprisonment makes it impossible to hold free elections in one year’s time on October 31, 2012. The EU has already made its position plain: if opposition leaders are not able to stand, then the elections... MORE

Contrary to expectations of many observers both at home and abroad, Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych has failed to instruct a parliament loyal to him to decriminalize the offences with which former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko had been charged. Rather, he looks determined to keep her... MORE

The September 29-30, Eastern Partnership summit in Warsaw was another typically EU empty diplomatic soirée. The Viktor Yanukovych administration has ignored Western criticism of political repression and the EU has put all its eggs into the Ukraine basket to show success in the Eastern Partnership,... MORE

The Pechersky District court in Kyiv on September 30 adjourned the trial of former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko until the week starting October 10, when a verdict should be delivered. This may become the turning point in Kyiv’s relations with the West. Tymoshenko faces... MORE

Ukraine’s poor relations with Russia are nothing new as they also existed under the “pro-Russian” Leonid Kuchma. Nevertheless, Kuchma had to deal with the more democratic Russian President Boris Yeltsin, whereas the certainty of Vladimir Putin returning as Russian President in March 2012 means that... MORE

To reduce its dependence on expensive Russian natural gas, Ukraine proposes to import Azerbaijani liquefied natural gas (LNG) via Georgia and across the Black Sea to Ukraine. Recent gas discoveries in Azerbaijan, and the reactivation of the Turkmenistan-Azerbaijan gas pipeline project, encourage a growing number... MORE

Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych met with his Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin near Moscow on September 24 in a last-ditch attempt to persuade the ruling tandem to lower gas prices for Ukraine. The officials involved have avoided saying anything specific about... MORE