Latest Articles about Ukraine
REVISITING THE ORANGE REVOLUTION, PART ONE: CONSIDERABLE GAINS MADE
Ukraine held the second round of its contentious presidential election on November 21, 2004. When the incumbent regime of President Leonid Kuchma tried to steal the election from popular favorite Viktor Yushchenko, thousands of Ukrainians took the streets in what came to be known as... MORE
ATTEMPT TO PURGE YUSHCHENKO PARTY FAILS
The People's Union-Our Ukraine party of President Viktor Yushchenko (NSNU) is undergoing a severe identity crisis just four months ahead of the crucial parliamentary polls scheduled for March 26. Addressing the NSNU congress on November 12, Yushchenko said the party should win the election. This... MORE
WHO ARE YUSHCHENKO’S TRUE ALLIES?
Despite Ukraine's September political crisis and the subsequent fall of the Yulia Tymoshenko government, the Tymoshenko bloc in parliament is still a fairly reliable ally of President Viktor Yushchenko's People's Union-Our Ukraine (NSNU). Other allies from the Orange Revolution, including the Socialist Party (SPU) and... MORE
YUSHCHENKO CHANGES PROSECUTORS
Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko has replaced Prosecutor-General Sviatoslav Piskun with Oleksandr Medvedko. Piskun was too close to former prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko, who is set to be Yushchenko's most dangerous rival in the parliamentary election next March. Furthermore, Piskun failed to solve a single major... MORE
UKRAINE’S CENTRIST CAMP IN DISARRAY AHEAD OF 2006 ELECTIONS
Although the main story in Ukrainian politics this fall has been the rift in the Orange Revolutionary camp, the centrists that once gathered around former president Leonid Kuchma are far more divided. Most of them will have a hard time winning seats in the 2006... MORE
LYTVYN’S BLOC – AN UMBRELLA FOR KUCHMA’S PEOPLE?
Ukrainian Parliamentary Speaker Volodymyr Lytvyn has decided on the format of his participation in the March 2006 parliamentary polls. The much-advertised mega-bloc between Lytvyn, President Viktor Yushchenko's People's Union-Our Ukraine (NSNU), and former prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko's Fatherland party has failed to materialize. Instead, Lytvyn... MORE
YEKHURANOV REFERS TO OLIGARCHS AS “NATIONAL BOURGEOISIE”
Once reviled by reformers, Ukraine's wealthy business oligarchs are now being described as a "national bourgeoisie" by top government officials. After much controversy and debate, on October 24 Kryvorizhstal, Ukraine's largest steel mill, was re-privatized in proceedings that were transparent and widely praised. The Ukrainian... MORE
ALLY CLEARED OF CRIMINAL CHARGE – A TRAP FOR YUSHCHENKO?
The Ukrainian Prosecutor-General's Office closed a criminal case against former National Security and Defense Council (NRBO) secretary Petro Poroshenko on October 20. This was the only case launched against a member of President Viktor Yushchenko's inner circle following the accusations of corruption against his team... MORE
YUSHCHENKO RE-AFFIRMS UKRAINE’S EURO-ATLANTIC GOALS
Last week President Viktor Yushchenko took steps to re-affirm Ukraine's desire for Euro-Atlantic integration. "Ukraine is a European country. I will never accept the idea that it is not," he told London's Royal Institute for International Affairs on October 17 (UPI, October 17). Western governments... MORE
BAM’S EFFECTIVENESS HINGES ON UKRAINE’S INTEGRITY
The success or failure of the European Union's first-ever Border Assistance Mission, now being launched on the Ukrainian-Moldovan border (see EDM, October 13) will depend on three highly uncertain factors: cooperation by the Ukrainian government, political consistency in Brussels and by EU diplomatic representatives in... MORE