Decentralization: The Wrong Solution to the Wrong Problem?

An off-the-peg decentralization solution to the complex problem of development without effective physical and institutional infrastructure can do Ukraine more harm than good

Co-author of a local elections bill Oleksandr Chernenko: “The next local elections can take place two years after decentralization kicks in”

Oleksandr Chernenko spoke about the main challenges to changing the local political powers-that-be, electoral risks, and the voting rights of internally displaced persons

Dangerous Liasons

How and when are Ukraine’s reactionary forces most likely to strike back

Akhmetov’s Losing Bet

The Donbas master's current clout in politics, economy and war

Political Redesign

Shifts in electoral preferences in the countdown to local elections

High Profile Killings. Cui Bono?

The Kremlin will use the murders of MP Oleh Kalashnikov and writer Oles Buzyna to put pressure on Kyiv internationally

The Phantom of Deoligarchization

Taming a few oligarchs will not change the oligarchic system, since Ukraine still has no organized alternative to it in the form of civil society or small and medium businesses

Showcase vs Show

Law enforcement reforms

Andrii Klymenko: “One of Ukraine’s most important tasks is to ensure that sanctions for Crimea and Donbas are not separated”

Why an international strategy to return Crimea is necessary and what implications the militarization of the peninsula will have for the Black Sea and Mediterranean region

The Chronicles of Alienation

The annexation of Crimea from December 2, 2013, through April 4, 2014

Kyiv – Crimea: the State of Uncertainty

Ukrainian authorities have failed to learn their Crimean lessons, leaving the return of it to "children and grandchildren"

Independent Ukraine Speaks

A year after the Revolution of Dignity

A Key to Transforming Ukraine

Hopes for stamping out corruption, reforming law enforcement bodies and transforming the country in accordance with the European values are futile, unless major flaws in the Ukrainian electoral law are eradicated

New Energy Addiction

Opting for imports of coal and electricity from Russia on the background of the still existing gas and nuclear dependence makes Ukraine totally vulnerable to Kremlin's potential blackmail

Roman Romanov: “The army has gotten more in the last 6 months than in all years of this company’s operations”

Director of UkrOboronProm, a state weaponry agency, offers an inside scoop on the weapons industry in Ukraine today

Mykola Velychkovych: "We have partly broken down the Interior Ministry system, but we still need to change the structure"

The Ukrainian Week spoke to former Deputy Interior Minister about the reform of the law enforcement, the prospects of Georgian know-how in Ukraine, and the future of volunteer battalions

Post-Revolution Hangover

Who will win the war of each against all in Ukrainian politics?

The Union of Donetsk and the Kremlin

Donetsk-born MP Yegor Firsov on his home region: In contrast to most regular citizens, who saw the riots from outside, I knew the process from inside. From the very first days, I clearly understood that there was a guided, controlled rebellion, in which everyone skilfully played the roles designated to them

Diversification Pains

External factors are pushing Ukrainian economy to overcome its extreme dependence on specific export goods and unreliable export markets

Who is Waging the War in the Luhansk People’s Republic

Widely perceived as the economic and political tandem of the Donbas, Luhansk and Donetsk oblasts have actually never been equal partners

The Unfree Peninsula

The Kremlin will try to secure Crimea for itself, so in 2015, it will continue to intensify the militarisation of this Ukrainian region.

Andriy Levus: “A successful post-revolutionary Ukraine would be the collapse of the Russian project”

The Ukrainian Week spoke to the former deputy chief of the Security Service of Ukraine and current MP about Ukrainian partisans in the Donbas, sabotage in Russia, reforms in the SBU and who it worked for prior to the Maidan.

Is Donbas Really so Hopeless?

Even progressive and pro-Ukrainian people from this region are often pessimistic about the Donbas and its population, saying that most locals are completely hopeless, it’s impossible to get through to their brains or souls, and it’s unrealistic to change the socio-political landscape of their territory; it’s like a black hole on the map of Ukraine, a kind of huge demographic and psychological well, the bottom of a mine, from which it is impossible to claw a way out to the surface.

Poroshenko’s Blunders

The President’s bloc is painfully reminiscent of Viktor Yushchenko’s Our Ukraine party mixed with elements of Viktor Yanukovych’s Party of Regions

Rapid Response Elections

The impressive victory of pro-European forces in the party lists must be put to work toward rapid and irreversible reforms, otherwise it will quickly turn into an equally impressive defeat

Starting a New Life, Voting as Before

The election in Donbas followed the traditional scenario for this region. Unfortunately, its residents learned nothing from the bloody lessons of 2014