Ukrainian scientists say that the mortality rate in Ukraine is the highest in the world. Among the reasons they give are smoking, alcoholism, but also a lack of spiritual values

Huge amounts have been written about the problems of Ukrainian migrant workers. It seems that all kinds of civic organizations both Ukrainian and international, UN bodies, etc, are concerned about this issue while the Ukrainian government and State bodies look on passively

Over the first 10 months of the year, according to the State Committee of Statistics, there were 398 thousand births against 630 thousand deaths however the Ministry of Justice asserts that the ratio is decreasing

Transparency International’s Global Corruption Barometer 2007 reports that Ukrainians see the judiciary, political parties and the police as most corrupt

Transparency International reports a total lack of progress on fighting corruption in Ukraine, with the battle remaining in word, rather than in deed.

All of this raises the question of why, if there is still no technology in Ukraine to ensure the safety of the miners in the Zasyadko mine, the management of the enterprise and all State supervisory organizations send men down at such risk

Since the beginning of this year, 4,735 miners have been injured, with 120 of the accidents being fatal. Due to lack of timely or else merely formal medical checks and screening, the death rate among miners from heart and vascular disorders remains high

According to the UNDP Blue Ribbon Analytical and Advisory Centre, Ukraine needs to abolish the moratorium on selling agricultural land as soon as possible in order to revitalize the agricultural sector

Not that Ukraine has anything to boast about, having taken 118th place (with 2.7 points) out of 180 countries on Transparency International’s Corruption Perception Index

Around 47% of the respondents said that they had paid bribes over the last year (against 50.2% in 2006). Most often, although this was down on last year, this had been to doctors (30.9% against 35.9% in 2006). In second place were bribes to teachers – 16.9%; in third – traffic police – 13.1%. According to Ms Naidyonova, these last two had virtually not changed.

The Court concluded that a number of these Articles ran counter to Article 1 of the Constitution which states that Ukraine is a sovereign and independent, democratic, social, law-based state

We publish an address given by human rights defender Nikolay Kozyrev to the Civic Regional Assembly Forum in Luhansk on 23 June

This is according to new ILO methods of ascertaining real unemployment, however some specialists believe the figure to be unrealistically low due to specific features being left out of the estimates

Specialists consider that the situation will not be improved so much by encouraging people to have more children, but rather through the creation of enough jobs, and also urgent reforms in healthcare, education, pensions, etc.

A recent survey into attitudes to corruption, most of the over 10 thousand people surveyed saw the way to fight corruption being to remove Deputy immunity and increase criminal liability for bribe-taking

A call to protect one of Kharkiv’s remaining cinemas and cultural centres

10.3 million UH are effectively hopeless debts to employees at remaining agricultural enterprises.

In largely Romanian-speaking areas of the Chernivtsi region a fourth of the children have at least one parent, most often their mother, working abroad.

The fact that men and women have equal rights in this area must be viewed in the light of the fairly miserable ratings for the protection of any property rights

The conflict over unpaid wages which has led to miners barricading themselves in the “Krasnopilska” Mine may have been resolved, though the miners have heard promises too many times