Four people were detained by police on Kyiv’s Independence Square when they tried to distribute condoms with an image of President Yanukovych on the packet. At least one has been sentenced to 15 days administrative arrest

Oleksandr Kovalyov who initiated the memorable protest on 15 February when around 200 Afghanistan War veterans deliberately snubbed President Yanukovych and other public officials by demonstratively turning their back on them alleges that pressure is being placed on him

Another criminal prosecution of concern to human rights groups has ended after a trial lasting 14 months with the conviction of the head of the Secretariat of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar People, Zair Smedlyaev

They call the recent Constitutional Court judgement on social payments a violation of human rights. The Court stated that cases involving social payments can refer not only to Ukraine’s social legislation, but also to Cabinet of Ministers normative acts regulating the amounts of these payments

On 25 January up to 100 former Chornobyl clean-up workers began an indefinite protest in Kharkiv’s Freedom Square demanding implementation of the Law on the Status and Social Protection of People who suffered as a result of the Chornobyl Disaster.

On 19 March 2009 Mykhailo Shmushkovych held a peaceful picket without any public order offences yet was fined 170 UAH for holding it.

Yet another dangerous legislative initiative could become law in the near future with considerations of public safety and order during the Euro 2012 European Football Championship used as a convenient excuse

A warning protest action is planned for 11 January by Lviv former Chornobyl clean-up workers and small business owners. They will be demanding that the authorities keep their promises

The court order is specifically about all city and district branches of the Batkivshchyna Party, and rejects the part of the application asking for restriction of the rights of other participants in the protest as well

The Kharkiv City Council applied for the ban yesterday, having suddenly decided that repair work needed to be carried out on the street where the penal institution is located

An apparent attempt to forcibly subject active members of the former Chornobyl clean-up workers movement to medical examination, and possibly reduce their disability status, is yet another of the worrying means used against those asserting their rights

The Centre for Society Research has noted some of the victories over recent months achieved by protesters. Some concessions over social payments must however be set against worrying uses of, for example, criminal investigations and the police

"One has the impression that after the termination of mass-scale and long-lasting protests, the regime has decided to crush those disgruntled, show their sphere of influence and “put them in their place”. So that others don’t think to follow their example, and come out onto the streets to uphold their rights"

The recent efforts by the government to win over some members of the former Chernobyl clean-up workers’ movement and to marginalize others have coincided with worrying use of the police in Kharkiv against certain “dissident voices” within the movement

15 members of the Coalition of Participants in the Orange Revolution and the Black Committee were detained on Monday outside the President’s Administration during a demonstration in favour of European integration

The leader of the Kharkiv former Chornobyl clean-up workers, Vladimir Proskurin believes the police actions were aimed at stopping him attending the Chornobyl Union of Ukraine conference and opposing the leadership of a person seen by many as selling out the protest movement

Another leader of the Kharkiv former Chornobyl clean-up workers, Petro Prokopenko has been detained while attending the NGO Chornobyl Union of Ukraine conference and is being brought to Kharkiv. The police statement claiming that Vladimir Proskurin has been released is not correct.

Kharkiv former Chornobyl clean-up workers active in the protests against cuts and non-payment of social benefits have received summonses from the Kharkiv Regional MIA CID as witnesses in a criminal investigation. With no grounds whatsoever in law one has been forcibly taken in for questioning

The Centre for Society Research has analyzed the protests over the last 2 weeks over reduction or non-payment of social benefits and what they show about the tactics being used by the authorities

There were five men inside when the officers brought the tent down exactly two weeks after a protester died minutes after a similar storm and forced dismantling of a tent in which former Chornobyl clean-up workers were holding a hunger strike protest