In a move which is either badly mistimed or deliberately chosen to spark trouble, the police have detained Road Control journalist Andriy Dzyndzya and an MP’s assistant and are refusing to allow lawyers or MPs in to see them raising fears that the men may have been beaten

While attention has deservedly been paid to the excessive use of force which the Berkut riot police have applied against peaceful protesters, other measures, including the worrying detention and criminal charges against 9 demonstraters are also aimed at crushing the protest and are equally unacceptable.

Andriy Zhukovyen and two other Road Control journalists had highly questionable charges brought against them after themselves coming under attack while videoing what they believed to be illegal activities by the traffic police

: Who’s oiling the propaganda machine? On the active role played by Viktor Pshonka, Ukraine’s Prosecutor General and a Swiss-based NGO in concentrated moves to associate the imprisoned former Prime Minister with Ukraine’s economic woes and justify her continued imprisonment

Imprisoned former prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko has announced an indefinite hunger strike “in unity and solidarity with all those who are presently struggling on all EuroMaidans in Ukraine and in the world” demanding that Yanukovych sign the EU-Ukraine Association Agreement

According to the directive, the decision has been taken “in order to take measures to ensure national security, a more detailed study and development of a comprehensive range of measures which need to be carried out to reinstate the levels of production and directions of trading relations with the Russian Federation and other CIS member states which have been lost”

The ruling majority has rejected all seven bills aimed at enabling imprisoned opposition leader and former Prime Minister, Yulia Tymoshenko to receive medical treatment abroad

Opposition MPs are blunt in stating that the delay is because Viktor Yanukovych has still not decided whether to release his main rival or not. Judging by the articles in the world media, this view is very widely shared

The non-binding resolution says Ukraine should release Tymoshenko “from imprisonment based on politicized and selective charges.”

German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle has issued an urgent appeal to Ukraine " to act and to unify in a practicable way toward the rule of law, and notplay for time. The clock is ticking, time is running out, and everyone in Ukraine should be aware of this."

The Party of the Regions members of the working group supposedly trying to agree a law enabling Tymoshenko’s treatment abroad seem to have been eager from the outset to break until Monday, the day before the Tuesday deadline for three crucial laws

No vote took place on Wednesday to resolve the issue of Tymoshenko’s imprisonment and although the Cox and Kwaśniewski Mission has been extended ti the Vilnius Summit, hopes are dwindling

Answering questions from journalists after a Party of the Regions conference in Donetsk on Saturday, Prime Minister Mykola Azarov suggested that “European politicians” will be to blame if “because of dubious demands over Tymoshenko” the EU-Ukraine Association Agreement is not signed

The week began with a new attempt at fabricating a “Tymoshenko case” and ended with Yanukovych signing Tax Code amendments, one of which is clearly aimed at blocking Vitaly Klitschko’s presidential aspirations. On Friday it also became clear that any resolution regarding Tymoshenko’s imprisonment has been put off until next Wednesday

Ruling Party of the Regions MPs are saying that they won’t support any of the four proposed draft laws enabling Yulia Tymoshenko to travel abroad for treatment

The current regime has yet again proved incapable of drawing any lessons from past mistakes. A new attempt ha been made to present Tymoshenko as a criminal embezzling the country using an international company whose fat fee will doubtless be paid for by the Ukrainian taxpayer

If President Yanukovych does not release Tymoshenko by 28-29 November, he will be seriously risking that as a result of his intransigence, even European governments with a positive attitude to Ukraine will not be willing to sign the Agreement

With three weeks remaining for Kyiv to demonstrate commitment to European integration by releasing Yulia Tymoshenko, the authorities have laid on a thousand-strong “Veche” (people’s assembly) instead

Poland’s Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski has said that the EU could defer the signing of the EU-Ukraine Association Agreement until 2014. Other EU officials have previously suggested that if it is not signed at Vilnius, nothing can happen until after the next presidential elections

With Tymoshenko still imprisoned and EU patience wearing thin, you might have thought now was not the time to arrest another politician. Ukraine’s leaders would appear to have decided otherwise, for reasons which suggest some very strange manoeuvres