The combat grenades used by police against protesters on Hrushevsky St are for use against terrorists and criminals, a former deputy head of the SBU [Security Service] says

Whether or not the disturbances on Hrushevsky St were initiated by specially commissioned provocateurs, after last week’s legislative coup, they were very widely predicted

Better than any legal commentary about the Russian look-alike attempt to stigmatize NGOs as “foreign agents” is this account from a father whose son’s leukemia and that suffered by other children could be treated thanks to help from abroad

In one of a number of original protests, activists have come to a SIZO [remand prison’ to confess for the masks (saucepans and bowls…) on their heads, their car procession and other “offences” as per the new anti-protest law

It is now official: the president has signed a number of bills overtly aimed at crushing peaceful protest and freedom of speech, and silencing journalists, civic activists and all active members of civil society

This analysis of the procedural violations and infringements of Ukrainian and international legislation in the laws voted on in parliament on Jan 16 was provided to EuroMaidan SOS by a group of lawyers.

Law No. 3879 hastily voted on and signed on Jan 16 indicates that Ukraine has entered a period of reaction and obscurantism. This is why society will be forced to move to new forms of non-violent resistance

It seems likely that the president has already signed into law some of the most scandalous and disastrous bills voted on through a show of hands and multiple procedural irregularities in parliament on Thursday.

Among the “laws” adopted by the ruling majority during a gravely flawed parliamentary vote on Thursday was one which expands the amnesty law to cover those guilty of beating peaceful protesters and journalists on Nov 30, Dec 1 and other occasions linked with the EuroMaidan protests

A draft law “passed” in full by the ruling majority in parliament on Jan 16 criminalizes libel, labels and restricts civic associations receiving foreign grants as “foreign agents” and imposes and substantially increases liability for any forms of protest. If the president does not veto the bill, it will set Ukraine’s democracy back by years.

Two months after Viktor Yanukovych “applauded” EuroMaidan protests, courts have once again come up with blanket bans of peaceful protest in central Kyiv, and near the president’s highly controversial residence at Mezhyhirya

AutoMaidan activists warn of their intention to apply to the European Court of Human Rights if courts continue to strip them of their driving licences for taking part in the car procession to the president’s residence at Mezhyhirya on Jan 29.

Students from the Kyiv National University have declared a hunger strike demanding that the state inspectorate of educational institutions terminate its unscheduled checks

If Viktor Yanukovych’s official response to the pressure on the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church and its clergy was supposed to reduce the negative fallout, it failed

Journalists have found video footage which gives the lie to Interior Ministry claims and shows clearly that it was Berkut riot police who beat and seriously injured former Interior Minister and political prisoner Yury Lutsenko

In its presentation to foreign diplomats on Jan 13 the Interior Ministry used its video footage as well as that of other media, editing the material as it pleased and adding its own additional text in an attempt to incriminate the opposition.

Serhiy Lukyanchuk, a driver who was not even on the AutoMaidan car procession to the president’s controversial and much guarded residence at Mezhyhirya on Dec 29 has been stripped of his licence for 3 months

More journalists who took part in a picket of the president’s highly controversial residence at Mezhyhirya on Dec 29 have received summonses to the traffic police.

Major Archbishop Sviatoslav of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church notes that for the first time in independent Ukraine the Church has been threatened with loss of its legal status

Farmers from Donetsk who have sent money and food for the Kyiv EuroMaidan have faced questioning from the tax police and accuse the authorities of pressure