Latest Articles about Ukraine
RUSSIA STALLING TALKS ON FLEET WITHDRAWAL FROM UKRAINE
Moscow opposes Kyiv's suggestions to begin discussing preparations for the withdrawal of Russia's Black Sea Fleet from Ukraine's Crimea, with sufficient lead time to complete the multi-year process by the 2017 deadline. Russia's position seems to imply that the withdrawal process might only get underway... MORE
NEW TWISTS IN THE RUSSIAN-UKRAINIAN DISPUTE
The continuing Ukrainian-Russian war of words took on a new twist on June 13, when the Russian Foreign Ministry accused Ukraine of acting jointly with unnamed foreign companies to develop oil and gas fields illegally off the Crimean coast of the Black Sea shelf, claiming... MORE
RUSSIAN-UKRAINIAN RELATIONS REVEAL DEEPER PROBLEMS
President Viktor Yushchenko’s first meeting with newly elected Russian President Dmitry Medvedev failed to resolve the outstanding issues between Ukraine and Russia. Despite Yushchenko’s optimism that all of these issues would be resolved, “the negotiations taking everything into account became very heated.” These issues cannot... MORE
RUSSIA INSISTS ON TREATING SEVASTOPOL AS AN OPEN QUESTION
President Dmitri Medvedev has tried to make a positive impression on every foreign partner he has encountered in his first month in office, building an image of an open-minded, polite and impeccably organized statesman, if perhaps not yet as a leader. He has made few... MORE
WILL NATO BECOME POPULAR AMONG UKRAINIANS?
The Ukrainian government has launched a campaign to make NATO popular in the country in order to secure a Membership Action Plan (MAP) for Ukraine. The Cabinet of Ministers has approved a plan to increase public awareness of the benefits of NATO membership, and pro-government... MORE
WILL TYMOSHENKO OBEY NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL?
The government of Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko will have to revise its decision to banish the U.S. company Vanco from the oil and gas fields in the Ukrainian part of the Black Sea. The Ukrainian Prosecutor-General’s Office (GPU) has ordered the government to restore... MORE
IS UKRAINE RETURNING TO KUCHMA-ERA REPRESSION?
In a television interview on May 20 Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko raised the stakes in her worsening relations with President Viktor Yushchenko by bringing up the question of impeaching the president if a continuing investigation into the Vanco contract (see EDM, May 21) finds proof... MORE
OIL REFINERY CONSTRUCTION PROJECT EXAMINED AT THE KYIV ENERGY SUMMIT
The Energy Summit in Kyiv (see EDM, May 28, 29) looked at a detailed proposal for construction of a refinery in Ukraine to process Caspian oil. The underlying idea is to reduce Russia’s strong influence on Ukraine’s refining industry and oil-product market by building a... MORE
TRANSIT SPACE CONCEPT LAUNCHED AT KYIV ENERGY SUMMIT
The presidents of Azerbaijan, Georgia, Ukraine, Poland, and the three Baltic states, along with officials from other European and Caspian region governments, the European Union and the United States, met on May 22 and 23 in Kyiv for a summit on energy security. It was... MORE
UKRAINIAN PROSECUTORS TARGET SELF-DEFENSE LEADERS
The Ukrainian Prosecutor General’s Office (PGO) has opened criminal cases against Minister of the Interior Yuriy Lutsenko and businessman Davyd Zhvania. Both were among the leaders of the 2004 Orange Revolution, which brought President Viktor Yushchenko and Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko to power. Since 2007,... MORE