How the President’s team replaces answers to uncomfortable que ions

The European Union is set next week to remove Andriy Klyuyev, the head of former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych’s presidential administration, from its sanctions list

How Yanukovych’s lawyers are dragging out the trial

The pitfalls of Yanukovych's $1.5bn case

PGO Senior Prosecutor on financial crimes of ex Prosecutor General Viktor Pshonka, money-laundering centers, and the base of evidence collected in this case

The main conclusion that can be drawn from the appearance of part of the black cash register in the press is that the Yanukovych regime, which considered itself legitimate, really never was

Director of the International Centre for Asset Recovery at the Basel Institute on Governance about cooperation with the Prosecutor General’s Office of Ukraine in investigating financial crimes of the Yanukovych regime, effective tools to search for stolen assets, and mechanisms of international interaction in financial intelligence

Is Maidan 3.0 possible, and what would it look like?

The Party of the Regions supposedly no longer exists in current Ukrainian politics, but it’s sent several columns out to the local elections

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

Cutting access to their financial resources is the most effective way to leave the representatives of the old regime with no chance for comeback

A year after the Revolution of Dignity

A slew of hindrances prevent the money stolen by Viktor Yanukovych and his regime from returning to Ukraine. These must be removed as soon as possible

Rinat Akhmetov, Vladimir Putin and Viktor Yanukovych continue to weave plots for Eastern Ukraine, making the rebels with black-and-orange ribbons think that they are dying for a New Russia, not for oligarchic interests

There are reasons to believe that officers of the Federal Security Service of Russian Federation (FSB) were involved in the planning and implementation of the so-called antiterrorist operations in Kyiv during the mass protests on Maidan in February, Ukrainian Security Service Chief (SBU) Valentyn Nalyvaichenko said during the press-conference on April, 3rd.

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

After Viktor Yanukovych fled and Ukraine found itself on the brink of a war, it seemed Ukrainians could be celebrating the victory, but somehow there was no euphoria. Only a mist.

Andrew Wilson is a Senior Policy Fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations and a permanent Reader in Ukrainian Studies at the School of Slavonic and East European Studies (SSEES), University College London. He shared his views with The Ukrainian Week on the prospects for rapid reform in Ukraine, on the inadequate reaction of the West to the usurpation of power by Viktor Yanukovych and the absence of the rule of law, both under the Orange government and under that of Yanukovych.

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

Viktor Yanukovych, the ousted president of Ukraine, said on Thursday that he remained the lawful president, and asked Russian authorities to grant his personal safety.

328 MPs vote to hold the early presidential election on May 25

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

Barack Obama says Putin does not respect the right of Ukrainians and Syrians to basic freedoms, The Guardian reports

The EU Council of Ministers reached consensus on imposition of sanctions against representatives of the Yanukovych regime very quickly but can’t agree on specific candidates, the EU Observer reports

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

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

President Viktor Yanukovych fires Volodymyr Zamana, Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Headquarters, and appointed him as National Defence and Security Council Deputy Secreatary, decrees posted on his official website say

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

Intrigue is brewing in Ukraine. Both unexpected and predictable. Will Viktor Yanukovych come full circle from the Olympics in Sochi? Will he be able to do this? And will he want to…?

Former US Ambassador to Ukraine Steven Pifer told in the interview to Deutsche Welle that the West should target Ukrainian oligarchs with sanctions.

The EU will work using all of its opportunities to find a political solution to the crisis in Ukraine which involves serious discussion of amendments to the Constitution, among other things, Germany’s Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier says before the meeting of the EU Council of Foreign Ministers that took place in Brussels today

Viktor Yanukovych has changed the procedure of the Cabinet of Ministers and instructed First Vice Premier Serhiy Arbuzov to act as premier, says the decree posted on the President’s official website

Arseniy Yatseniuk, the leader of Batkivshchyna, is ready to become premier provided that the Parliament returns the 2004 Constitution and the Cabinet of Ministers is formed by the opposition, he says in an interview for Deutsche Welle

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

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

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”

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

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

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 role of the West in Ukraine's political crisis as seen by European and American experts

Appeals for targeted sanctions against Ukrainian officials responsible for the violent crackdown of peaceful demonstrations and the use of force and persecution against journalists and protesters figure high in the messages of Ukrainian opposition, civil society and protesters of EuroMaidan to the West, in particular to the U.S. and to the EU. Apart from Yanukovych, his family members and state officials, the protesters call on the West to include business elites, so called oligarchs, supporting Yanukovych’s regime in the list of sanctioned individuals.

Ukraine's crisis is as much an internal battle between competing identities as an external geopolitical struggle between integration and exclusion from the Western project

Putin cannot be faulted for skillfully pursuing his interpretation of Russian interests. The blame for the outcome in Ukraine falls squarely on the EU’s leaders, because if Ukraine does lose its independence in one way or another, European security will be at risk – a risk nowhere more keenly felt than in Poland and the Baltic states, Joschka Fischer, german Foreign Minister and Vice Chancellor from 1998-2005, says in his article for Project Syndicate.

“The Moscow deal further reduces Ukrainian room for maneuver in its foreign and internal policies. Russian loan and cheaper gas price will allow Ukrainian government to freeze major problems in Ukrainian economy until 2015 elections but it is not a support which can solve growing economic instability,” says Wojciech Kononczuk, Head of Department for Ukraine, Belarus and Moldova at the OSW (Centre for Eastern Studies) think-tank, in his comment for The Ukrainian Week

“The Euro Revolution and the Yanukovych regime’s shameful deal with Putin’s Russia are as momentous conceptually as they are politically, requiring a new way of thinking about what has transpired in Ukraine and how Ukraine may be best understood,” Alexander Motyl, American historian and professor of Political Science at Rutgers University, notes in his blog on The World Affairs Journal.

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

Fundamentally, EuroMaidan represents a completely different form of social and political organization from Putin’s managed democracy

The European Union is not prepared to get into a bidding war with Russia for Ukraine. But it appears that the attraction of European living standards, rule of law and democracy remain strong with Ukrainians, particularly the young. Mr. Putin's Russia offers nothing that can compete with that.

Under its current government, Ukraine may be a prize not worth winning

How the screws will be tightened should the EuroMaidan fail

If the EuroMaidan is neutralized and assistance is provided by Vladimir Putin, Viktor Yanukovych will prepare a wide range of tools to stay in power after 2015

On December 17, 2013 Yanukovych annulled Ukraine as an independent entity, as a full-fledged participant in international politics, and put all international level decisions that concern Ukraine in the hands of Vladimir Putin, Yulia Tymoshenko says in her statement regarding the events in Moscow on December 17.

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

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

Oleksandr Popov, Head of Kyiv City State Administration, and Volodymyr Sivkovych, Deputy Secretary of the National Security and Defence Council, are fired upon request from Prosecutor General. They are suspected of violation of citizens’ constitutional rights at Maidan Nezalezhnosti (Independence Square) at night of November 30

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

The disruption of association with the EU revealed two crucial things. One - Ukraine has proven incapable of acting as an independent state. Two - European and American policies in Eastern Europe failed because rhetoric was the only thing confronting Putin’s pressure.

The latest developments make the prospects of signing the Association Agreement very vague. What can Europe do with Ukraine after 28/11?

Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich sounded deadly serious during a passionate speech he gave on his administration’s commitment to fighting corruption on Wednesday, however he forgot to mention the missed opportunity to put words on paper in a memorandum of understanding to fight corruption with the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, Mark Rachkevych in his article for The Financial Times reports.

Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych was scheduled to meet with Russia’s Vladimir Putin at the meeting of CIS presidents in Minsk on October 24-25. This meeting was scheduled. Instead, Yanukovych met with Putin in Sochi on October 27. The results of this meeting have not been disclosed.

Successfully tested by Leonid Kuchma over a decade ago, the below scenarios can help Yanukovych win the presidential race in 2015

Having made their fortunes in the chaotic and lawless privatisation of the 1990s, they are now looking for the rule of law and property rights which can be provided to them by the EU, The Economist claims.

as a weighty bonus in the upcoming presidential elections

Since coming to power, the Party of Regions and Viktor Yanukovych, have consistently ignored the rights and interests of local governments that they said they would defend

Despite Viktor Yanukovych’s fear of Yulia Tymoshenko, whom he evidently considers his main political rival, he may agree to let her receive medical treatment in Germany. On one hand, this would sharply increase the regime’s chances of signing an Association Agreement with the EU, while on the other, it would create new obstacles for the opposition

Public activist Kostyantyn Lavrov having fought against MAKO Donetsk Construction Company owned by Oleksandr Yanukovych was sentenced to five-year imprisonment. Novosti Donbassa reports

Officials use the excess of Viktor Yanukovych portraits as a means to pointedly demonstrate the heightened loyalty to the President in order to disguise their “corruptive nature.” Political scientist Viktor Nebozhenko told this in a comment to Tyzhden.ua

The new “anticorruption” law turns 470,000 public servants into obedient servants ready to fulfil the will of the Yanukovych Administration

As deadlines near on the future of Ukraine's ties with Europe, President Viktor Yanukovich is under pressure to put aside personal animosity and let his jailed opponent, Yulia Tymoshenko, go to Germany for medical treatment, Reuters reports.

The Yanukovych regime does not realize all the risks of de-legitimization in the eyes of the people

Local protests may escalate to a nationwide movement against the Yanukovych regime well before the 2015 presidential election

The “win at any cost” alternative could well be a scenario whereby Viktor Yanukovych will become prime minister with extensive powers, should he lose the 2015 presidential election

The new anti-corruption law recently passed by the legislature turns 470,000 civil servants into obedient performers of the Yanukovych regime’s will

Over three and a half years under the Yanukovych regime, the number of protests has grown from 2,305 in 2010 to 3,636 in 2012. They now cover a wider territory and have grown more radical, The Ukrainian Week writes in the article titled Will Ukraine Rise? in the upcoming issue due after July 18

“Most of Ukraine’s regional policymakers and populations probably wouldn’t object to decentralization… For the Yanukovych Family to give up power is to commit political and economic suicide.”

Premiership with extended powers for Viktor Yanukovych may well be an alternative to the “victory at any price” in the 2015 presidential race. Read a detailed report in the article Operation Premier Yanukovych in the upcoming issue of The Ukrainian Week out on July 18

Vitaliy Klitschko is improving his rhetoric, but fails to give clear answers to crucial questions regarding the nation’s development

In his annual address to the Verkhovna Rada, President Viktor Yanukovych suggested improving the election system by switching to an open list system with preference vote

Ukrainian society trusts only three social institutions – the church, the mass media and the army, finds a survey by the Democratic Initiatives foundation and the Razumkov Centre held on May 17-22.

On June 3, Viktor Yanukovych submitted a proposal to dismiss Head of the Central Election Committee (CEC), Volodymyr Shapoval, early after he reached the retirement age of 65. The President recommended Oleksandr Kopylenko to replace Shapoval as CEC member. According to Kommersant Ukraine, based on its sources, CEC member Mykhailo Okhendovskyi and CEC Secretary Tetiana Lukash are the likeliest candidates to replace Shapoval as CEC Head. Both vote in line with the Party of Regions.

Swedish economist and a senior fellow at the Washington-based Peterson Institute for International Economics, Andres Aslund believes that the time of financial crisis is the best time for Ukraine to implement economic reforms.

On May 26, Viktor Yanukovych visited Russia and met with Vladimir Putin. No official statements or agreements were disclosed subsequently. Earlier, the media reported that Yanukovych has a meeting with the Customs Union member-state leaders in Astana scheduled for May 28-29 under the framework of the Supreme Eurasian Economic Council, and the memorandum on Ukraine’s status as an observer in the Customs Union could be signed at the next meeting of EurAsEC member-state leaders.

Trying to win next presidential elections Victor Yanukovych could divide and destroy Ukraine, Alexander Motyl, American historian and professor of Political Science at Rutgers University, notes in his blog on The World Affairs Journal.

Despite the lack of support from most Ukrainians, the Yanukovych regime has no intention of giving up power in the 2015 presidential election and is preparing to extend its rule by artificial means

Yuriy Lutsenko is going to create a new political project. The question is whether he will make the same mistakes as were made during the launch of People’s Self-Defence and whether the new organization will be constructed to serve the interests of Petro Poroshenko

The Yanukovych regime will continue the tactics of the creeping usurpation of power, trying to avoid decisive battles and unjustified image losses

“Despite winning rare praise from the West for freeing an opponent from jail, Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich is likely to resist extra pressure and the lure of trade deals to release his fiercest rival, ex-prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko,” writes Reuters.

Viktor Yanukovych`s chances of inking landmark association and free trade agreements with the EU are as uncertain as the fate of Yulia Tymoshenko, notes The Economist.

Freedom House welcomed the pardon of several former government officials in Ukraine and called on President Viktor Yanukovych to take similar action on Tymoshenko.

In Ukraine political power is a means of enrichment rather than governance while the opposition politicians are an extension of the business groups they claim to fight, writes The Economist.

For Yanukovych, the advantages of good PR do not outweigh the discomfort associated with ruining his ostrich-leather shoes, American historian and professor of Political Science at Rutgers University, writes in his blog on The World Affairs Journal.

While the opposition continues to announce its latest radical initiatives, the Yanukovych regime is strengthening its positions