With only "a little more than 100 men" among the blockaders, according to Semen Semenchenko, a lawmaker and former volunteer-battalion commander who supports the blockade and is the voice behind the livestreamed video, many have questioned the initiative’s grassroots narrative. In particular, they question how it has managed to force Kyiv’s hand so quickly with seemingly little financial support.

The National Anti-Corruption Bureau [NABU] has reacted with anger after a court rejected its application to have a Kyiv judge caught taking a huge bribe remanded in custody. The agency pulls no punches, calling the move sabotage and rejecting the court’s attempt to hide behind a dubious ‘statement’ issued recently by the High Council of Justice.

Among the candidates for posts in the Supreme Court [SCU] are the former President of the Court who justified Viktor Yanukovych’s draconian ‘dictatorship’ laws and judges involved in politically motivated prosecutions. The CHESNO civic movement has sounded the alarm to ensure that purportedly fair competition does not re-establish the heavily tarnished status quo.

Corrupt judges can breathe a sigh of relief. An amendment to Ukraine’s Constitution restricting judges’ immunity from arrest in cases where they have been caught committing an offence has been deftly ‘readjusted’ by the High Council of Justice

A new twist has been reported in the story of Siemens gas turbines which could be used to deliver the turbines to Russian-occupied Crimea without Germany’s Siemens openly bypassing EU sanctions. A check is urgently needed since the scam suggested would cast a shadow over Siemens and demonstrate serious failings in sanction controls.

A joint report by the European External Action Service and the European Commission says that Ukraine is carrying out unprecedented reforms across its economy and political system, and its democratic institutions have been further revitalised.

Of the key battles fought in post-Maidan Ukraine, the one over land reform attracts little attention which is a shame

Clearly the IMF does not trust the Ukrainian authorities to fight corruption. The Ukrainian government must convince the IMF that it is doing something about corruption either through deeds or credible policies.

Although the dominant response to the vast wealth declared was disgust, many, including the author, consider "this transparency far more important. It cannot be rolled back."

The new e-declarations has finally given Ukrainians an opportunity to assess the wealth of senior public servants such as President Petro Poroshenko and Prime Minister Volodymyr Hroysman .

The Reanimation Package of Reforms is seriously concerned with continuous attempts of the Ukrainian political elite to rollback anticorruption achievements and calls on state leaders to refrain from suspension of the anticorruption reform.

Civic activists and prominent newspapers have condemned what they see as deliberate sabotage of the electronic income declaration system and called on the West to refuse both financial aid and visa-free travel until Ukraine’s leaders stop trying to con the country’s citizens .

The Kerch Strait Bridge is Russia’s top-priority infrastructure project. At a cost of at least $4.5 billion, the 19-kilometer car-and-rail bridge will tie Russia to Crimea, the Black Sea peninsula Moscow annexed from Ukraine after sending in troops and staging a referendum dismissed as illegitimate by 100 countries in a UN vote

Transparency International Ukraine, lawyers representing the families of the Heavenly Hundred and other anti-corruption organizations point to the failure of Ukraine’s law enforcement bodies to convict even one high-ranking official of the previous regime.

The resignation of Aivaras Abromavicius from the position of Minister of Economic Development and Trade is another nail in the coffin for the hopes for serious reform in Ukraine

Minister Abromavichus’ resignation could result in loss of legitimacy by President Poroshenko “which will put on hold the reform efforts, corruption fighting, eliminate any opportunity for the constitutional reform and Minsk-2 format, and simplify the task for the Russian government to destroy the Ukrainian state.

Miners in Kremlin-backed militant-controlled Makiyivka may face trial for ‘treason’ after going on strike earlier in January over unpaid wages.

Transparency International in Ukraine has joined MPs in trying to find out how a norm appeared in Ukraine’s 2016 Budget allowing officials to defer making electronic income and property declarations until 2017

Only one in five court rulings on corruption charges against high-ranking officials ends with the person convicted and imprisoned. More often they get off with a fine or suspended sentence. In a number of cases, the defendant was acquitted despite a considerable weight of proof of guilt.

An MP and sponsor of the populist Radical Party which came to power promising to radically combat corruption has concealed ownership of a flat in the centre of Paris worth well over a million EUR. If this is an embarrassment, so too should be the news of the Radical Party’s strange electoral bedfellows in the Kherson oblast.