Ukrainian Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych’s government seems to have abandoned a project to extend the Odessa-Brody pipeline into Poland for pumping Caspian oil outside Russian control. Instead, Yanukovych is negotiating with the government of Slovakia on a plan to transport both Caspian and Russian oil... MORE

The pro-presidential Our Ukraine bloc (NU) and the Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc (BYT) have signed an accord proclaiming a unified opposition. It is aimed against the majority coalition in parliament, which was formed last summer by Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych’s Party of Regions, the Socialists, and... MORE

The Industrial Union of Donbas (IUD), Ukraine’s second-largest steel-making group, is negotiating a merger with the Russian Metalloinvest group controlled by Alisher Usmanov, who also heads Gazprom’s investment arm for assets other than gas, Gazprominvestholding. An IUD-Metalloinvest merger could generate far-reaching political and business repercussions... MORE

Yulia Tymoshenko, leader of the eponymous political bloc and head of the Ukrainian opposition, arrives in the United States on Sunday, February 25, for a six-day visit that will take her to New York and Washington. It is her first visit to the U.S. as... MORE

Since the law initiated by opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko and adopted by parliament on February 6 has banned any form of alienating gas transit pipelines and other Naftohaz Ukraine-owned assets (see EDM, February 7), Russia’s Gazprom and officials in Kyiv seem to be adjusting their... MORE

As Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko and Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych continue to dispute each other’s powers, interpreting the constitutional amendments of 2004-2006 each in his own favor, both hope for support from the judiciary. On February 5 Yushchenko referred the new law on the Cabinet... MORE

Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko and the ruling coalition in Kyiv have failed to find a compromise over the “Law on the Cabinet of Ministers.” The law is meant to complement the constitution, more clearly defining the remits of the president, the cabinet, and parliament; at... MORE

Although Ukraine’s Party of Regions introduced a new draft language law to parliament last fall, interest in the bill will decline following the unexpected death of key party ideologue Yevhen Kushnariov last month. Elevating Russian to an official or second state language requires a change... MORE