Latest Articles about Ukraine

YUSHCHENKO FACES NATO REFERENDUM PROBLEM

Signatures have been collected in Ukraine in favor of holding a referendum on membership in NATO and the Single Economic Space -- a loose economic union with Russia, Belarus, and Kazakhstan. The Central Electoral Commission (CEC) has confirmed that the signatures are valid. Pro-Western President... MORE

ARE EARLY ELECTIONS AN OPTION FOR YUSHCHENKO?

Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko may opt for an early parliamentary election in order to reverse the 2004-2006 constitutional reforms. Reversing the amendments, which diminished presidential authority and made it possible for Yushchenko's rivals to quickly return to power, is probably impossible without controlling two-thirds of... MORE

NEW COMPLICATIONS IN UKRAINE’S ENERGY SITUATION

Indications are multiplying that the Ukrainian government is abandoning a project to extend the Odessa-Brody pipeline into Poland as a route for Kazakhstani oil outside Russian control. Instead, the Ukrainian government now intends to connect the Odessa-Brody pipeline with the Druzhba pipeline that carries Russian... MORE

YUSHCHENKO REGAINS CONTROL OF HIS PARTY

Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko has replaced the leadership of his party, People’s Union-Our Ukraine (NSNU). The NSNU’s business wing, the “dear friends” who controlled the party since its foundation in spring 2005, have been banished from the leadership. Yushchenko apparently holds them responsible for the... MORE

ODESSA-BRODY-EUROPE OIL TRANSPORT PROJECT SHELVED INDEFINITELY

Information released following the December 10-11 session of the Ukraine-Kazakhstan Intergovernmental Commission on Economic Cooperation suggests that Russia has successfully forced an indefinite postponement of the Odessa-Brody-Plock oil transport project. Kazakh and U.S. companies in that country were to have been the oil suppliers and... MORE

YUSHCHENKO LOSING KEY MINISTERS

Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko has lost at least two of the four ministers who remained loyal to him while working in Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych's cabinet. Parliament, which is dominated by the Anti-Crisis Coalition (AKK) -- consisting of Yanukovych's Party of Regions (PRU), the Communists,... MORE

CONSTITUTIONAL REFORM QUESTIONED IN UKRAINE

The constitutional reform that Ukraine’s parliament passed during the Orange Revolution in December 2004 and that came into effect after the March 2006 parliamentary election may now be revised. President Viktor Yushchenko and the parties that are in opposition to Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych believe... MORE

CLOUDS GATHER OVER YUSHCHENKO’S INTERIOR MINISTER

The team of Ukrainian Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych has mounted an offensive against Interior Minister Yuriy Lutsenko, one of a handful of ministers loyal to President Viktor Yushchenko. Lutsenko spearheaded the anti-corruption campaign that was launched after Yushchenko came to power in 2005. Several Donetsk-based... MORE

KYIV CHANGING IDEAS, MIXING SIGNALS ON ODESSA-BRODY OIL PIPELINE

Yesterday, November 15, Prime Ministers Viktor Yanukovych of Ukraine and Jaroslaw Kaczynski of Poland announced that they would support building an extension of the Odessa-Brody oil pipeline westward, to the Kralupy refinery in the Czech Republic. The announcement implicitly changes the original intention to extend... MORE

YUSHCHENKO LOSING HIS PARTY

The People’s Union-Our Ukraine (NSNU) political party has ignored President Viktor Yushchenko’s call for change. The second stage of the NSNU’s third congress on November 11 failed to replace the party’s leadership, although Yushchenko -- the party’s honorary chair -- had urged this at the... MORE