Former Interior Minister Yury Lutsenko’s lawyers have been informed that their application for Lutsenko’s release on health grounds will be examined in the “courtroom” in the Mensk Prison Colony where Lutsenko is held.

Doctors who have examined imprisoned former Interior Minister and opposition leader Yury Lutsenko say that he will need an intestinal operation over the next 6 months. His family insist that this must be at a specialist clinic in Kyiv

Human rights workers and doctors believe that attempts to control the illicit drug trade are hitting the wrong people, namely people suffering from terminal illnesses who are deprived of urgently needed painkillers.

NGOs are sceptical pointing out that previous programmes did not receive more than 40% of the scheduled funding and there is no reason to expect that this programme will be different

Ihor Zavadsky’s lawyer says that her client is becoming blind while held in custody. Yevhenia Zakrevskaya says that although the police have completed their investigation, neither the accused nor his defence have been given the file material.

A number of organizations have addressed an open letter to Minister of Health Raisa Bohatyryova explaining why the overpricing by the winning bidder will effectively deprive around 20 thousand people of a full year’s treatment

Andriy Chernousov has written a shocking analysis of the situation with Ukraine’s so-called “psycho-neurological institutions” for people with serious psychological disorders usually making them unable to cope by themselves. There are 151 such institutions in Ukraine with their residents forgotten and helpless

Ukraine has no facility for lifesaving bone marrow transplants for children. Nor will it in the foreseeable future for a brutally simple reason: the government has channelled money into the Euro 2010 football championship

Ukrainian prisoners may now choose their doctor and be examined outside a penal colony. Analysts are sceptical about the efficiency of this new innovation from the Justice Ministry.

Statement in protest over the Cabinet of Ministers’ decision to transfer 200 million UAH envisaged for the construction of diagnosis and treatment complex within the Oxkhmatdyt Children’s Hospital for spending on Euro 2012

As reported the case of Ihor Zavadsky, a prize-winning accordion-player has given rise to sensational headlines, but also concern. He has now been remanded in custody for another 4 month

The “Constitutinal Assembly”, a consultative-advisory body under the President which is supposed to prepare amendments to the Constitution, has no members of the opposition who assert that the Assembly is a front for carrying out what the President wants

Ms Tymoshenko alleges that she was beaten when taken by force to a Kharkiv hospital. A forensic expert on Thursday confirmed that she has two bruises on her body, but was unable as yet to explain their origin.

German doctors travelled to Ukraine on Friday to examine fthe former Prime Minister who has been on hunger strike since 22 April after allegedly being beaten

Jean-Claude Mignon has said that the situation over the alleged beating in the prison colony of former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko cannot be left without repercussions. Mignon said that the excuses given by Ukraine’s representatives did not convince anybody

Yevhen Zakharov writes that the government began the first stage of medical reforms with a pilot scheme in the Vinnytsa, Dnipropetrovsk, Donetsk regions and in Kyiv and joins colleagues in slamming the inept and potentially disastrous changes

In the light of Ms Tymoshenko’s hunger strike following apparen ill-treatment, European Union Enlargement Commissioner Stefan Fuele has stated that the treatment of Tymoshenko is a "stain" on Ukraine’s record.

The three most prominent former government officials sentenced to widely criticised prison terms have now all been returned to prison. Their medical treatment coincided with the European Court of Human Rights’ Public Hearing in the case of Lutsenko v. Ukraine on 17 April.

The Ukrainian government is planning to make organ removal from those who have died for transplant purposes mandatory. Experts advise against haste and say comprehensive discussion is needed to avoid abuse.

Irina Lutsenko, wife of imprisoned former Interior Minister and opposition politician, asserts that her husband’s two weeks of treatment in hospital ended as soon as the European Court of Human Rights public hearing in his case was over (on Tuesday) and the international experts left Ukraine