FEMEN staged another protest action under the slogan “Ukraine is not a bordello” which addressed one of the most influential politicians in the European Parliament. Elmar Brok, the Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee, was accused of using services of Ukrainian prostitutes during his official visit to Kiev. The action is a part of the [...]

The bankruptcy of the Ukrainian airline AeroSvit became a huge problem for those who used the services of the company. Because of the carrier’s debts, hundreds of Ukrainians spent Christmas at airports waiting for a long-awaited return home. Passengers’  discomfort overshadow dark interests of influential people in Kiev, who anticipate – along with the decline [...]

The Armenian Central Election Commission has registered eight candidates for Armenian presidential elections. Here’s the list of candidates for the presidency who will be competing for the votes of Armenian citizens on 18 February.

European officials’ warnings directed to the new authorities of Georgia regarding the selective application of justice, human rights and the persecution of opposition, sound familiar. Does political violence of Prime Minister Bidzina Ivanishvili just remind or copy the scenario used by President Viktor Yanukovych in Ukraine? A well-justified concern Chief of EU foreign policy department [...]

Yevhenia Tymoshenko, daughter of imprisoned former Prime Minister of Ukraine, was a special guest of the VIII Polish-German-Ukrainian Forum, organized by the PAUCI Foundation in Warsaw, Poland. Before the beginning of the Forum, we had a chance to talk with her about the current post-election situation in Ukraine.

Regardless of the assessment of the election in Ukraine that was held on December 17, the newly chosen representatives of the Ukrainian people will start their work in the Verkhovna Rada. After some hesitation, the opposition decided to appear in the new parliament. It seems that the election frauds are a problem only for the [...]

On the Monday press conference organized by OSCE PA, NATO, OSCE/ODIHR, PACE and the European Parliament, the heads of the joint monitoring mission presented their statement on the October election to Ukraine’s parliament. Their preliminary report on the election points to lacking democratic standards during the process. Opening the conference, Walburga Habsburg Douglas, the co-ordinator [...]

The tour of after-election conferences of the main parties resulted in a bunch of citations on exit polls and vogue plans regarding political future and possible coalitions among parties. Mykola Azarov, the leader of the Party of Regions and incumbent PM of Ukraine, his party colleague Borys Kolesnikov, Mykola Kniazhytsky and Arseniy Yatsenyuk from Batkivshchyna, [...]

The polling stations on Ukraine have been opened at 8am local time. Citizens have time to cast their votes for candidates to the Verkhovna Rada till 8pm. This year, Ukrainians test the new mixed voting system: 225 PMs will be chosen from party lists and the same number – under simple-majority constituencies. The number of polling stations [...]

According to the Ukrainian law, no pre-election surveys can be published after Thursday, 18 October – 10 days before the actual election to the Verkhovna Rada will be held. Therefore, it is the best moment to take a closer look at polling results published thus far and focus on the most controversial – as well [...]

Common Europe Foundation, the publisher of our portal Eastbook.eu, presents the new special project: “Parliamentary Elections in Ukraine”, organized together with the All-Ukrainian National NGO “Committee of Voters of Ukraine“. Our aim is a media monitoring of the voting process as well as the election campaign. The Ukrainian parliamentary elections, scheduled for 28 October 2012, [...]

In the shadow of the Georgian elections held on Monday, the Center for Eastern Studies (CES) hosted a meeting with Vitaly Klitschko in Warsaw, Poland. This conference with the leader of one of the biggest Ukrainian parties prompted some reflections of my own. The first impression of the meeting with the reigning champion of professional [...]

Once again, on the day of the anniversary of the proclamation of Ukraine’s independence by the Supreme Council, the crowd gathered in the streets of Kiev. However, the current election campaign caused division of participants of the event into two opposing camps in accordance with their political preferences. Despite the fact that the police did [...]

Four years have passed since the launch of TVi, a Ukrainian channel, in March 2008.More than half of this period went by under the rule of Viktor Yanukovych and his Party of Regions, whose blunders and missteps the TVi reporters dare to point out and criticize. However, the beginning of this year’s election campaign translates [...]

The European Union and United States of America expressed their concern regarding several recent homophobic incidents in Ukraine and called on the country’s authorities to take legal steps against such actions. The main reason behind EU and US diplomats’ reaction was cancelling a pride parade in Kyiv and a brutal assault on its organizer. In [...]

Thursday’s battle in the Ukrainian Verkhovna Rada could be treated as just another political spectacle performed by democratically immature representatives of the Ukrainian nation if it were not for the essence of the problem, which led them to violence. Division of Ukraine into Russian-speaking east and Ukrainian-speaking west is a real problem, posing difficulties in [...]

On 16 May, the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Catherine Ashton announced the decisions on appointing heads of the EU delegations to 18 countries. Among them is a Polish diplomat, Jan Tombiński. He is the new Head of the EU delegation to Ukraine.  Jan Tombiński, the Permanent Representative of [...]

The police criminality is widespread in Ukraine, states Amnesty International. The organisation calls on Ukrainian authorities to set up an independent institution monitoring actions of the policing service.  “As things stand, fans visiting Euro 2012 are under threat from a criminal police force.  Moving quickly to set up an independent body to investigate officers’ crimes [...]

European politicians’ hysterical reactions to imprisonment of Ukraine’s former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko and their exhorting to boycott Euro 2012 in Ukraine raise doubts about intentions behind these actions. Why German statesmen have started to categorically demand respecting human rights of Ukraine just before the big pan-European games? And would they be as firm with [...]

The official song of the national team of Poland has been chosen – it is “Koko Euro Spoko” performed by “Jarzębina” (Rowan) band. In the SMS voting, a group of energetic ladies from Kocudzy village in Lublin Voivodeship left behind biggest Polish music stars. Congratulations! The contest for a song of the Polish national football [...]

4 blasts and at least 29 injured in Dnipropetrovsk, Ukraine. A terrorist attack or an action against opposition? “So far nothing is clear”.

A series of explosions shook the city of Dnipropetrovsk in eastern Ukraine. The explosions took place in the city centre during peak hours. According to the Ukrainian Ministry for Special Affairs, 30 people were injured, including 10 children. Around 11:40 am, the first explosion first explosion shook a tram stop in front of the Opera building. 40 [...]

Former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, serving her 7 years long sentence of imprisonment, started a hunger strike in a protest against the assault committed by prison guards. Meanwhile, a video of a person similar to the ex-PM – faking a spinal injury and signalizing having an affair – was posted on the Internet. The convicted [...]

His country will not ratify the association agreement between the European Union and Ukraine, announced Karel Schwarzenberg, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic. “Not now. I think that at another time, yes, but not now. Later”, said the Czech Foreign Minister, in reply to the question of Deutsche Welle correspondentwhether the Czech parliament [...]

Former President of Ukraine Viktor Yanukovych has been offered USD 2 million for a book about the Orange Revolution.

Ukraine will commemorate victims of the Operation Vistula on its 65th anniversary, 28 April.

“Concluding the construction of the Nord Stream gas pipeline means the end of the exclusive role of Ukraine as a Russian gas transit country for Western Europe”, Gazprom Director’s conclusion drawn from the conversation with the Prime Minister of Russia on the work progress of the pipeline.  Alexey Miller, Director of Gazprom, in a traditionally [...]

The growing involvement of Eugenia Tymoshenko, daughter of imprisoned former Prime Minister, in political activity does not interfere with her love life. The new role of the former Prime Minister’s daughter forced her to split up with her husband, a controversial British rock musician, Sean Carr. The Ukrainian media are reporting that there is a more suitable [...]

After strenuous efforts, Chairman of the EU-Ukraine Parliamentary Cooperation Committee in the European Parliament Paweł Kowal met with former Prime Minister of Ukraine Yulia Tymoshenko. The leader of Ukrainian opposition, sentenced to seven years of prison, is currently staying in a penal facility in Kharkov. The meeting with the Ukrainian ex-PM, which took place in [...]

Talks between Ukrainian and German authorities on potential treatment of former PM Yulia Tymoshenko in Berlin are on the way.