National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) is carrying out the surveillance in the European Court of Human Rights. There couldn’t be the greater shame of the Ukrainian state!

More than five years since the war in Donbas started, how should we remember those who have died in it?

56% of Ukrainians are against the ‘special status’ for Donbas that is a pivotal element of both the Minsk Accord and the Steinmeier formula which Ukraine agreed to on 1 October 2019

Two Crimean collaborators, including Natalya Poklonskaya, who played a direct role in the persecution of numerous Crimean Tatar and other Ukrainian political prisoners, have for the first time taken part in an official Russian delegation to Turkey

Larysa Holnyk, the Poltava judge who faced persecution and a physical attack after exposing corruption, has published disturbing details of a recent attempt to enlist her in a politically-motivated criminal investigation against former Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko

The desperate plea that the Ukrainian Army does not abandon them coincides with claims from Russia that it is not a party to the conflict and cannot guarantee the withdrawal of the Russian and Russian-controlled, armed and financed militants

The agreements reached do not take into account the current situation in Ukraine, which is what actually defines the red lines that Ukraine cannot cross without loss of sovereignty, the risks of human rights violations and harm to the interests of the conflict-affected population.

Among the problems articulated by prominent human rights groups and well-known civic activists is the lack of any real clarity as to the ‘red lines’ that Zelensky spoke of, as well as unease that he does not understand which concessions are unacceptable to a majority of Ukrainians.

Russia and former President Petro Poroshenko are claiming that Russia has scored a victory by Ukraine’s ‘agreement to the Steinmeier Formula’, although this may not be the case

Andriy Bohdan, Head of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s Administration, reportedly took part in the negotiations in Russia which resulted in Ukraine’s sudden about-turn on closer ties with the EU and, ultimately, to the Euromaidan protests

A constitutional majority of MPs in Ukraine voted on 3 September to remove their constitutional guarantee of parliamentary immunity. For the moment, however, their immunity remains secure

It is doubtless no accident that the rumours gaining momentum this week of an imminent release of Ukrainian political prisoners and POWs held in Russia coincided with the support expressed by US President Donald Trump for Russia to re-join the G7, and frustratingly vague statements from French President Emanuel Macron

The EU is reportedly drawing up plans for a coordinated EU policy of non-recognition of Russian passports issued to the residents of the Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts of Eastern Ukraine

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has ‘responded’ to a petition demanding the dismissal of his highly controversial Head of the President’s Administration, Andriy Bohdan by claiming that he has already dismissed him

There have been demands for the resignation of Ukraine’s Human Rights Ombudsperson Lyudmila Denisova and / or for a special parliamentary committee to investigate allegations that she helped to fill a key judicial commission with members likely to block, rather than facilitate judicial reform

The coming weeks will show whether the President’s grandiose ‘lustration’ plans were for real, or merely an election gimmick, and whether the parties entering parliament have any intention of carrying out the vital reforms discussed with human rights activists

Russian President Vladimir Putin has issued a decree making it possible for all Ukrainians in the Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts (Donbas) to receive Russian citizenship according to ‘simplified procedure’, even if they live on Ukrainian government controlled territory

Leonid Slutsky, a Russian politician who is under EU, US and other countries’ sanctions over his aggressive support for Russia’s invasion and annexation of Crimea, may become Vice President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe

Among those pleading with the PACE delegations to not take such a disastrous step were the relatives and lawyers of the ever-mounting number of Moscow’s Ukrainian political prisoners, the families of the MH17 passengers murdered by a Russian BUK missile on 17 July 2014, and numerous human rights NGOs.

Four of the 18 members of the ‘delegation’ which Russia is hoping will be ‘triumphantly reinstated’ in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe [PACE] on 24 June are under personal sanctions for their role in Russia’s aggression against Ukraine