More than 500 political, civil leaders, Nobel Laureates and pro-democracy institutions have signed an open letter to defend democracy, warning that the freedoms we cherish are under threat from governments that are using the crisis to tighten their grip on power.

Protests under the banner ‘Silence kills’ have been taking place in many Ukrainian cities over the mounting number of attacks on civic activists and journalists.  The protests began on 27 September just hours after Ukraine’s Prosecutor General Yuri Lutsenko said that civic activists bear part of the blame

Talking to a person who entered the social care home labyrinth in Ukraine because of a mishap in his or her life, who understands full well that there is no exit except after death, leaves a permanent mark in your memory (Opening words to a conference on May 18, 2018)

The Public Integrity Council is suspending any involvement in the official process for assessing judges which it sees as a charade aimed at retaining judges in their posts, while reporting “successful completion” of reforms . 

Just how much our letters mean to Ukrainians held in Russian captivity became movingly clear during a very special meeting on 19 March between former political prisoner Akhtem Chiygoz and 14-year-old Bohdan Fenechok.  “Where is my friend?”, Chiygoz asked, after entering a classroom in Lviv.  Bohdan stepped forward and the two embraced  (see the video)

One of the Crimean Solidarity activists arrested in Russian-occupied Crimea in October this year has been named Ukraine’s Volunteer of the Year.   Marlen (Suleyman) Asanov had long been known for his generosity in helping people in need. When, under Russian occupation, the armed searches and arrests began, he became an active member of Crimea Solidarity, a civic initiative launched to help political prisoners and their families.

Ukraine has continued to face many challenges but something has changed in the last year. The country started scoring targeted and powerful public relations goals abroad. At Ukraine Crisis Media Center, where I am a co-founder, we have actively sought to change how Ukraine is perceived

Displaced by war, Oleg Gorbachev moved his hostel for elderly people in 2014 from eastern Ukraine to the outskirts of Kyiv 

Station Kharkiv, one of the city’s largest volunteer organizations, is facing the loss of its offices after donors told the organization that they could no longer provide sufficient funds to cover the rent of the premises.

Ukraine’s leading Jewish organizations are holding a joint conference this week and hope to create one single coordinating body, representing all organizations. If they succeed, this will be the latest demonstration by Ukrainians from all faiths and ethnic groups of unity in the face of Russian aggression

At the beginning of August a group of volunteers from Lviv arrived in Kramatorsk wanting with their own hands to help restore buildings damaged when flats in a many-storey apartment block in Stankostroy were hit by shells

During the last month two attacks have been carried out on our colleague Andriy Didenko. KHPG Director Yevhen Zakharov believes the attacks to be linked with his work.

With Ukraine’s leaders having systematically removed most controls and transparency with respect to vast amounts of taxpayers’ money, the mere suggestion that the NGO Center.UA should be accused of money laundering might seem comical. The background, unfortunately, is much more sinister

Interestingly while less and less people believe that demonstrations and rallies can help or that they personally can have impact on the authorities,, more are pinning their hopes on civic organizations.

With so many horrific tales of police lawlessness, an internal clean up would seem warranted. Instead it is civic activists who are facing scrutiny and bullyboy tactics. The aim seems ominously clear: silence those highlighting the assault on people’s rights.

Many well-known public figures, journalists and NGOs, including KHPG, the Centre for Civl Liberties and othersare concerned that a criminal investigation is being used solely to obstruct the civic activities of Maxim and Kostyantin Latsyba and to use them as an example to intimidate all activists

Activists from a Donetsk oblast civic movement accuse the authorities of cultivating puppet NGOs in order to imitate development of civil society

Civic organizations believe that those in power have orchestrated the effective hijacking of the Public Councils under the Foreign Ministry and Kyiv City State Administration in order to make them malleable as part of an assault on civic society

Oleh Rybachuk, leader of the civic movement CHESNO, believes that in the near future there may be a wide-scale campaign aimed at discrediting civic activists and journalists

It would appear that the law enforcement agencies have at least in the case of Ihor Koliushko manufactured a letter giving them an excuse for carrying out checks on business enterprises