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

The Ukrainian Week speaks to Volodymyr Vasylenko, expert in international law and former Ambassador of Ukraine, about Viktor Yanukovych’s responsibility for crimes against Ukrainian people, grounds for prosecution by the International Criminal Court in Hague and actual assistance the West can provide to Ukraine today

In early February, Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights Nils Muižnieks paid an urgent visit to Ukraine to assess the situation with human rights, including the way law enfrocers treated protesters, in Kyiv and regions. Based on his visit, a report will be drafted to be presented to the CoE Committee of Ministers. The Ukrainian Week talks to Mr. Muižnieks about his preliminary findings back in Strasbourg

Germany's Frank Walter-Steinmeier, France's Eric Fournier, and Poland's Radoslaw Sikorski come to the Verkhovna Rada

Yanukovych has 24 hours to sign the return to the 2004 Constitution, Poland's Foreign Ministers writes in his Twitter

Opposition leaders and Viktor Yanukovych signed the Agreement to Regulate the Crisis in Ukraine at the Presidential Administration on February 21. The text has been promulgated by the President's press-service

Canada's Prime Minister Stephen Harper announces travel bans for top officials involved in violence against protesters in Kyiv and considers economic sanctions against Yanukovych and his supporters

MPs pass a resolution to stop the use force by the police in downtown Kyiv, The Ukrainian Week’s journalist reports from Parliament

Russian President Vladimir Putin decided to send Vladimir Lukin, the Human Rights Commissioner of Russia, with a mediation mission to Ukraine, Putin’s press secretary Dmitri Peskov reports

Public Commission to Investigate Human Rights Violations in Ukraine issues its Statement after the bloodshed of February 18

The bodies of eight people shot dead covered with blankets are on Maidan Nezalezhnosti close to the Kozatskyi hotel

On February 19, the US imposed visa bans on senior Ukrainian government officials believed to be responsible for a violent crackdown by riot police against protesters, a senior State Department official said, as quoted by Reuters

Clashes between police and protesters continue in Kyiv

SBU, Ukraine’s security service, says that the statement of SBU Chief Oleksandr Yakymenko speaks of preparation for an “anti-terrorist operation”, not the launch of one, SBU press center clarifies

President Viktor Yanukovych threatens to put opposition leaders in jail, journalist Sviatoslav Tseholko wrote on Facebook quoting Batkivshchyna leader Arseniy Yatseniuk

From 10.20 a.m. on February 18, 2014, by 6 a.m. on February 19, 2014, 351 protesters called for medical aid, Kyiv City State Administration reports based on information from the Administration Health Care Department

Protesters have begun to take away a part of the barricade on Hrushevskoho Street where major clashes took place on January 19-22; MP Arsen Avakov said that activists would set up a checkpoint at Hrushevskoho and free the Kyiv City State Administration and four oblast state administrations by morning; four Maidan activists are still in detention centers; the opposition claims that the Maidan is not going anywhere; titushky have made another attempt to demolish barricades on Khreshchatyk; a resolution was submitted to the US Senate calling on immediate sanctions against Ukraine; the Maidan is preparing for peaceful pressure on Parliament

The size and persistence of the protest movement that started in November has been amazing and admirable. I think it has greatly surprised not only almost all international observers but also most Ukrainian political and civil society activists

What is happening in Ukraine is a direct reaction to the lack of consideration of the authorities for the aspirations of its citizens to be part of Europe and to live in a country governed in accordance with democratic principles and respect for human rights

The authorities’ “concessions” did not address any of the original causes of the mass protests, leaving the confrontation at a standstill

The list of wanted activists includes the son of MP Anatoliy Hrytsenko, Oleksiy Hrytsenko; and AutoMaidan activists Dmytro Bulatov and Serhiy Koba, the Interior Ministry’s statement on its website says

While American leadership is waking up to the political crisis in Ukraine, experts discuss gloomy scenarios for Ukraine

The Ukrainian State was the impossible dream of grandparents and something the parents sacrificed their lives and comfort for. For the Ukrainian leadership, it is nothing but a temporary resource of personal wealth

The title of this opinion piece does ring a bell, doesn’t it? It was Slavoj Žižek who said these words when he was asked to assess the USA and NATO bombing of Serbia during the war in the former Yugoslavia. Whereas quite a few public intellectuals and thinkers in Europe had second thoughts on NATO operations, the Slovenian philosopher didn’t bother to search for a softer phrase: “Too little and too late"

US Ambassador Geoffrey Pyatt: “The situation today is not hopeless, but it requires tough decisions from the Ukrainian Government regarding a number of issues, which have been put off for far too long”

Historian and sociologist Oksana Mikheyeva on why the Donbas intelligentsia is silent and what business in this region wants

The campaign offers Ukrainian journalists support and urges anyone to send in photos or alerts should any attack on a journalist take place

There are still many optimists who consider Yanukovych to be just a corrupt paranoid, who can be controlled by the oligarchy who are interested in accessing EU markets. Actually, Yanukovych is seeking violence as a way of pay back, revenge for his 2004 failure. He is using the whole state apparatus for this. He will keep talking about dialogue, but there are no democratic institutions for a dialogue in Ukraine as he usurped power back in 2010

A Russia-EU summit is held in Brussels today. Ukraine will be the top priority on the agenda, Polish publication Rzeczpospolita reports

Prime Minister Mykola Azarov resigns, the official website of the Government reports

The meeting of President Viktor Yanukovych and his working group with opposition leaders is over after four hours

Loki, the Belarussian who was killed on Hrushevskoho Street, always carried a Ukrainian flag in his pocket. Armenian Serhiy Nihoyan “never asked for anything” and was constantly on duty on the Maidan

Nearly 3,000 protesters stormed the Oblast State Administration building in Dnipropetrovsk today. As a result, three police officers ended up in hospitals and ICTV cameraman had a neck injury

Police and thugs crack down down on protesters storming the Oblast State Administration building. The injured are delivered to hospitals where the police waits for them

The Yanukovych regime has refused to compromise even after the deaths of several protesters, and there is no indication that any number of victims will change this

Roman Senyk, who was shot by the sniper during the clashes on Hrushevs’koho street on January,22nd died in a hospital on Saturday, Svoboda MP Iryna Sekh said.

A delegation from the European Parliament will visit Ukraine on January 28–30 to examine the situation surrounding the EuroMaidan first-hand. Meetings are planned with the Ukrainian leadership, opposition representatives and,k first and foremost, with the Presidium of the EuroMaidan

The Ukrainian Week talks to Viktor Musiyaka, one of the authors of the Constitution of Ukraine and a professor at the Kyiv-Mohyla Academy, about the current events. Far from giving a comforting opinion, the professor offers specific guidelines for overcoming the deep political crisis.

At least 42 journalists were injured in clashes with the Berkut riot police in Kyiv, the Institute of Mass Information reports based on its monitoring

A protester is dead after four gunshots during protests at Hrushevshkoho Street, Expresso.TV reports referring to the medical service of the Maidan

A senior government source from another EU state told The EUobserver that individual EU countries could impose unilateral measures pending an EU-level accord.

Activist and Maidan leader Ihor Lutsenko disappeared this night, activist Maria Lebedeva reports on Facebook

Representatives of the Maidan NGO were not present at the talks with National Security and Defence Council Chair Andriy Kliuyev, Advisor to President Andriy Portnov and Justice Minister Olena Lukash assigned to seek a solution to the current crisis in negotiations with the civil society and opposition by President Yanukovych, says ex-Interior Minister Yuriy Lutsenko

Vitaliy Klitschko and Andriy Parubiy guarantee officers no persecution and the right to serve in posts equivalent to the ones they hold now should they withdraw and cease all forceful actions demanded by Yanukovych in a written statement posted on the EuroMaydan account in Facebook

The spike in numbers at the protest showed the resilience of a movement with broad aims, including the ouster of Mr. Yanukovych, The WSJ reports.

Yuriy Lutsenko, leader of the Third Ukrainian Republic initiative and politically persecuted ex-Interior Minister in Yulia Tymoshenko’s Cabinet, is beaten and injured by Berkut riot police in the clashes on the night of January 10-11. Ten more people are injured, five taken to hospitals.

The revolutionary Christmas Tree on Independence Square, fairs, carols with Cossacks and festive symphonies to see and hear this season

EuroMaidan in posters, images and objects that could well become art installations

So what are the December 17 deals with Russia? A victory or a defeat?

Social psychologist Oleh Pokalchuk speaks about the nature of relationships between Ukrainians and the Ukrainian authorities during protests

Thus far the U.S. reaction to the Ukrainian upheaval has been subdued, as the Obama administration evidently fears alienating Russia, which it needs to pursue its Middle East policies. It is time for the White House to specify its options, as Ukraine stands on the brink of outright conflict

“What the hell are you doing?!” an emergency doctor yells at Berkut, special purpose police officers as they chase after people and beat them up in front of the Presidential Administration

Does the EuroMaidan still exemplify the axiom that ‘revolutions are made by the youth’ now that it has become a movement against Yanukovych?

The brutal truth is that public opinion in many Western countries cares little for Ukraine – and certainly not enough to risk an open confrontation with Moscow

As President Yanukovych’s team is dawdling with the solution of the political crisis in Ukraine, it is trying to get the most out of his defeat, comments Viktor Nebozhenko, President of the Ukrainian Barometer think tank

The people on Maidan were defending something far greater than an association agreement with the EU. They were standing in the way of a police state, defending fundamental European values and defying the post-Soviet order imposed by Russia, The Economist writes