Who is alleged mastermind of the efforts to shake up the situation in the country and why it has become possible?

“It’s now or never.” This quote is constantly used by the supporters of the continuous pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong, which are about to enter the sixth month since the marches of millions of people in June

The government can hardly count on support from the streets despite its high ratings

Several hundred people marched on June 1 in downtown Kyiv to draw attention to more than 200 Ukrainians who have been illegally imprisoned in Russia, Russian-occupied Crimea and Russian-controlled parts of Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts

President Poroshenko has headed a delegation of top Ukrainian officials marking the fifth anniversary of the start of the Euromaidan protests

According to recent sociological studies, there have been no significant changes in the mood of Ukrainians over the last three years. The scarcity of demonstrations cannot be attributed to loyalty to the current government, but rather to the fact that the opposition is equally far away from understanding what the citizens need and how these needs can be met

This week started off with a bang in Kyiv...and it had nothing to do with working on healthcare reform, which the Verkhovna Rada eventually passed on October 19. The #1 topic became a protest action to push political reforms forward that was called by anti-corruption politicians and former Odesa Governor Mikhail Saakashvili

Alyaksandr Lukashenka has recognized the danger emanating from Russia. So far, it’s been covert, but the signs are serious

Romanian Social Democrats won elections by a landslide but face stiff resistance from society whentrying to stop the anti-corruption drive

How the past six months changed Ukrainians, Ukraine and the Maidan

The Maidan became both a tourist destination and a place where foreigners, who are not indifferent to the fate of Ukraine, gathered. The flags that flew above it were from various countries, not only those of Ukraine and the EU. The heroes of Nebesna Sotnya - the Heaven Hundred - also include the citizens of other countries. How did, and do, foreigners view the Maidan?

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.

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

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

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

MPs who gathered to hold a parliament session at 3 p.m. were blocked from the Verkhovna Rada session room

Secretary of State John Kerry is expected on Wednesday to again raise the possibility of U.S. sanctions on Ukraine, Reuters reports.

Oppositional MP Lesia Orobets’ informed that three protesters are killed after today’s clashes. Seven are seriously injured.

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

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 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"

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

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

The EuroMaidan began as a protest against President Yanukovych’s decision to disrupt the Association Agreement with the EU. Over the past two months, it has escalated into resistance to the government and President Yanukovych himself

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

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

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

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

Family members recognize Maidan activist Yuriy Verbytskyi kidnapped earlier from the hospital in Kyiv along with Kyiv-based activist Ihor Lutsenko in the body found in a forest in Boryspil Raion, Hanna Hrabarska wrote on her Facebook page referring to Yuriy’s niece

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

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 Steering Committee of the Eastern Partnership Civil Society Forum calls upon the European Union to cease all financial assistance to the government of Ukraine, and to impose a travel ban on all 239 Ukrainian MPs who voted on 16 January 2014 for authoritarian new laws,” the Eastern Partnership Civil Society Forum’s Statement on repressive laws in Ukraine and Azerbaijan claims.

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

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

US Federal Judge Bohdan Futey talks about the new generation of Ukrainians and threats to Ukraine's independence

The choice of scapegoats for the bloody dispersal of the EuroMaidan proves that Yanukovych is leaning towards the pro-Russian lobby

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

Western diplomats have expressed “concern” over the situation in Ukraine. They “invite participants in the conflict to negotiate” but have hesitated to state a clear stance. This is not without reason

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

Protesters Call for President's Ouster After Violent Dispersal of Demonstration, The Wall Street Journal reports

Ukraine has seen the most protests against impudence and inactivity of law enforcers in 2013, the January-September 2013 research of protests, repressions and concessions to protesters by the Center for Society Research reports. The research results are published on the Center’s website

Protest sentiments are escalating in the Donbas. But distrust for politics and inert opposition make the dissent purely pragmatic and local

Yet another opposition activist in prison has a cumulative effect on the whole post-soviet sphere

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

Frustration with the government, the attacks of professionally trained thugs and the lawlessness of the police are the current reality in rebellious Pervomaisk

Yuriy Barabash, a Russian citizen, photographer and designer at the Kyiv-based Tempora publishing house, claims that border patrol took him off the train and banned entrance to Ukraine today upon instruction of the SBU, Ukraine’s special service.