Yehor Firsov: “Living in a new way? We’ll see”

The Ukrainian Week talks to the Donetsk-born Yehor Firsov, the youngest MP in the Verkhovna Rada, about recipes for rapid career growth in politics, the bazaar atmosphere in parliament and the helpless Rinat Akhmetov

A Heavy Mace for Mr. Poroshenko

What the new President should start with to meet expectations of his voters

Vitaliy Kovalchuk: “The agreement on close cooperation between UDAR and Poroshenko has not been voided by anyone”

The chairman of the UDAR faction in parliament speaks about the roots of the Poroshenko-Klitschko union, the need for an early parliamentary election and the tests of power

Andrey Illarionov: “The aggression against Ukraine will inevitably end in a redrawing of Russia’s borders”

Andrey Illarionov, a former advisor to Vladimir Putin, talks to The Ukrainian Week about the prospects of Russian imperialism, the efficiency of Western diplomacy and the possible consequences of the Russian-Ukrainian war

Donbas: The Revenge of the Proletariat

Russian weapons have transformed separatist-controlled territories into a battlefield. The locals support the rebels for promises of order and Soviet values. The region could quickly become the new Transnistria

The Birth of New Political Reality

Presidential elections are merely a prologue to the dramatic overhaul of political landscape

Who's in control of the rebellion in Donetsk?

The question "who controls the separatists in the eastern Ukraine?" has no categorical answer. The insurgents of Donetsk don't have a single command centre. In fact these terrorist groups are controlled by a number of different individuals who often don't see eye to eye.

It’s Not the Winning, But the Taking Part That Counts

Why some candidates are running in the campaign without a chance to win it

The Myth of Russian-Speaking Regions

If Russian becomes the second state language or even acquires official status in part of Ukraine’s territory, this will aggravate the discrimination of the Ukrainian-speaking majority and will ease the Kremlin’s expansion

Déjà vu? Poroshenko vs Tymoshenko

Ukraine risks returning to the post-Orange Revolution internal squabbles very soon

A Dangerous Compromise

If Ukraine’s top officials are unable to adequately assess the fatal outcome of their efforts in compromise seeking with Russia for Ukraine, they have no right to head the country. If they do realize the danger of the linguistic concession they are about to make, they should be treated as actors in the Russian cultural and language expansion in Ukraine who intentionally undermine its constitutional order and national statehood

The Force of Hope. Who Is to Stop Separatism?

While new authorities are set to play by the old rules, the country is veering further out of control. All hopes are on the army

Who's Behind Separatism in the Donbas?

Checkpoints and barricades made out of tires have been installed on the highways of Donetsk region. In the cities administrative buildings have been seized. Groups of masked men armed with sticks and bats control the roads and search the passing transport. Using crowds of civilians as a shield "the little green men" capture Ukrainian armored vehicles

Crimean Mafia in Politics

Russian aggression in Crimea reveals interesting aspects of using criminal groups in politics

Serhiy Kunitsyn: “The only thing that forced Crimean elite to support Moscow was the presence of 20,000 Russian troops”

Ex-premier of Crimea speaks about a fatal four-day procrastination following Russia’s invasion, attempts to bribe Crimean Tatars and reasons why the leaders of Crimea’s enforcement authorities defected to the Russians

Nuclear Reincarnation. Does Ukraine Need Its Nukes Back?

Russian military aggression has recently become a constant threat, while the Western powers are failing to fulfil the security guarantees they extended to Ukraine under the 1994 Budapest Memorandum. The issue of nuclear or other similarly effective weapons with which to defend Ukraine’s borders is again high on the agenda

Self-Determination for the Kremlin

For a quarter of a century now, Russia has the dubious distinction of being the biggest provocateur and supporter of separatist projects in the neighbouring countries, which mars its prospects.

Volodymyr Vasylenko: “Ukraine had to give up its nuclear weapons to become a sovereign state and have its independence recognized by the entire world”

The anamnesis of Ukraine’s non-nuclear status

Russian Aggression: Genesis, goals, counteraction and legal consequences

Ukraine itself must spearhead efforts to counteract Russian aggression. Only then can other countries be expected to help. Disregard for the motivation behind Russia’s policy and a failure to understand Russia’s geopolitical goals are the fundamental reasons why the Ukrainian government is so irresponsible in security issues and the West so helpless in counteracting Russia’s expansion.

The Old New Cold War

Edward Lucas: “The new Cold War has been about the use of Russian money to divide the weak of the West and also the use of the energy weapon”

A Ukrainian Foreign Legion

Does Ukraine need mercenaries in its army

The Crucial Human Resource

Behind the nice façade of a top government-level reshuffle, the new Ukrainian authorities are outrageously indiscriminate in other appointments.

The Vacuum in Luhansk Oblast

How pro-Russian forces are trying to fill the emptiness created by the fall of Yanukovych

Bloody Games

How Ukraine should tackle lustration, skeletons in the closets of its new government and tools that could help it not lose the war

Volodymyr Ohryzko: “Ukraine has the moral and legal right to restore its nuclear status”

The Ukrainian Week talks to Volodymyr Ohryzko, the Minister of Foreign Affairs in 2007–2009, about what Ukraine can do if the guarantors under the Budapest Memorandum it signed in 1994 in exchange for giving up its strategic nuclear weapons arsenal, the third largest in the world, fail to meet their commitments

Viktor Chumak: “Crimea can be used as a base for further intervention in south-eastern regions of Ukraine”

Viktor Chumak, MP, Head of the Parliamentary Committee for Fighting Corruption and Organized Crime and Major General of Justice, who served in the Ukrainian Armed Forces and Border Service for over 20 years, talks to The Ukrainian Week about Ukraine’s defence capability, ways to localize Russian aggression and protection of Ukraine’s eastern borders