The promises to restore people’s homes, devastated by the war, were made only two years ago, the reaction on the eve of a visit by President Poroshenko pure Soviet

There is a real risk that reforms will stall now that the country has moved from the unsustainable Yanukovych corruption levels to the sustainable Kuchma levels that allowed some to become extremely rich while the vast majority remained structurally poor

The headlines announcing imminent release of Crimean filmmaker Oleh Sentsov and other Ukrainians held illegally in Russia were at very least premature. Statements about Nadiya Savchenko’s possible return also made the headlines earlier, but have yet to come to anything, despite the 34-year-old now being on a total hunger strike and demands from all democratic countries for her release.

It is 4 months since Anastasia Leonova was arrested in Kyiv and concern is mounting that the 33-year-old Kremlin critic is in detention on ‘terrorism’ charges because Ukraine’s SBU needed a Russian. Not just one, with the grounds for detaining 2 other Russians also questionable.

It is 4 months since Anastasia Leonova was arrested in Kyiv and concern is mounting that the 33-year-old Kremlin critic is in detention on ‘terrorism’ charges because Ukraine’s SBU needed a Russian. Not just one, with the grounds for detaining 2 other Russians also questionable.

Russian state TV says it has exposed Kremlin foe Aleksei Navalny as a paid agent of the West. Navalny and his allies in the opposition say they have exposed the program as a sloppy hit-job full of fabricated "evidence."

In what has been aptly described as “the latest disgrace from the Prosecutor General’s leadership”, an attempt was made late on Sunday evening to read out criminal charges against Vitaly Kasko, ex-Deputy Prosecutor General and prominent critic of corruption and sabotage of reform within the prosecutor service.

Nine months after an Equality March in Kyiv was attacked by right-wing homophobic thugs, four men have received 2-year suspended sentences. No hate crime component was taken into account and the defendants were deemed to deserve a milder sentence for their ‘sincere remorse’.

New sabotage as the second anniversary approaches of the Odesa 2 May disturbances and deadly fire which Russian propaganda tries to claim was a ‘massacre’

At a closed hearing, Russia’s Supreme Court has upheld the 11-year maximum security prison sentence passed on Ukrainian Valentin Vyhivsky. Even the defence lawyer was prohibited from divulging the arguments given which clearly included the torture used to extract ‘confessions’.

The defeat packs a symbolic wallop for Ukraine, where the Euromaidan unrest that toppled the government nearly two years ago was fueled in large part by a desire for closer relations with the EU. But it could also block planned visa liberalization for Ukrainians who wish to travel to EU states

It is hard to find the words to express the sense of betrayal. Are the deaths on Maidan, the persecution, and courage to have no meaning because of a pseudo referendum with questionable motives, arguments taken straight out of the propaganda Russia used to justify its aggression against Ukraine and highly dubious funding?

It is hard to find the words to express the sense of betrayal. Are the deaths on Maidan, the persecution, and courage to have no meaning because of a pseudo referendum with questionable motives, arguments taken straight out of the propaganda Russia used to justify its aggression against Ukraine and highly dubious funding?

Officers of the newly created ‘National Guard’ will be allowed to shoot without warning and use armoured vehicles and water cannon against demonstrators Putin’s Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov has already made it clear that the fighters can be used against “unauthorized mass protests”.

It is clear why the Russian media joined the defendant and his far-right friends in claiming that his 4.5 year sentence had been for destroying a portrait of the President, but why did the Ukrainian media so happily repeat the nonsense?

The farcical elements in Russia’s second attempt to try Ukrainian Serhiy Lytvynov would make for a good comedy clip.  In real life humour is impossible since the 33-year old from a Luhansk oblast village has been held illegally in Russian detention for almost two years. and doubtless still bears the scars of the original torture applied.

The European Union must ensure that it has a realistic and effective policy towards its East. And entering into agreements which encourage greater integration and cooperation with these countries is the only way of doing that.

President Poroshenko’s dismissal of a critical New York Times editorial as ‘hybrid warfare’ seems wildly off the mark. NYT was, if anything, more charitable of the President’s motives than many Ukrainians who assume Poroshenko’s main criterion for the prosecutor general and the next prime minister is the candidate’s loyalty

Olga Li is facing a possible prison sentence for ’incitement to enmity and ]extremism’ after a public address to Vladimir Putin in which she accused him of ‘a criminal conspiracy against his own people’ and reported that in the Kursk region Putin’s popularity rating is in fact 25%.

Andriy Kolomiyets, the 23-year-old Ukrainian facing trial in Russian-occupied Crimea for alleged actions during Euromaidan in Kyiv before annexation has given harrowing details of the torture used to extract a ‘confession’