On an eight-day official visit to Ukraine, Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill is receiving a rock star official welcome. Kyiv city authorities advised drivers to stay away from downtown for four days and banned protests, a far cry from the democratic practices ushered in by the 2005 Orange Revolution. Five months into office, President Viktor Yanukovych has reversed the anti-Russian platform of his predecessor, Orange Revolution hero Viktor Yushchenko, who this year scored only in the single digits in a bid for reelection. Yanukovych has swung the political pendulum so far and fast in the opposite direction that many believe Ukraine’s democratic future is now in doubt. Kirill’s solicitations are part of a coordinated, Kremlin-sponsored push to reassert Russian political...

The Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union (UHSPL) says that corruption and human rights violations in Ukraine are on the rise and turning the country into a "feudal state," RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service reports. Volodymyr Yavorskiy, UHSPL's executive director, told RFE/RL that his organization recently completed extensive surveys with the Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group showing that the number of complaints by Ukrainians about corruption in local politics had greatly increased. He said most of the complaints were about public prosecutors...

About eighty representatives of the Svoboda Organization, the Congress of Ukrainian Nationalists, the Ukrainian National Assembly – Ukrainian Nationalist Self Defense Organization and the Ukrainian People's Party staged a protest on Tuesday outside the Ukrainian House in Kyiv against the visit by Russian Orthodox Church Moscow Patriarch Kirill to Ukraine. During the protest, representatives of the Svoboda Organization staged a theatrical performance entitled "A Glamorous Tour by a Kremlin KGB Staffer," an Interfax-Ukraine reporter informed...

The description of Belarusian President, Alyaksandr Lukashenka, as “pro-Russian” has side-stepped the fact that he is a Soviet Belarusian nationalist which developed after 2002, when he rejected the then Russian President, Vladimir Putin’s, offer to unite both countries. One factor behind Lukashenka’s Soviet Belarusian nationalism is his unwillingness to open up the Belarusian economy to Russian economic take-over. Moscow’s exasperation with Lukashenka partly rests on his economic protectionism in relation to Russia, which closely resembles that of Latin American left-wing nationalism...

Recalling that Canada was the first Western nation to recognize independent Ukraine on December 2, 1991, Canada and Ukraine underline the importance of their relationship as friends and reliable partners. Canada and Ukraine welcome the strong and dynamic interaction between their nations which are founded on special historical and cultural ties, enriched and fostered by the community in Canada of more than one million Canadians of Ukrainian heritage. We further emphasize that...

Putin is in Ukraine's Crimea for a two-day visit that is likely to raise tensions over the disputed, predominantly Russian-speaking region. Putin was due to meet with Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, who is holidaying in the picturesque Black Sea resort of Sevastopol. On July 25, when Russia marks its annual Navy Day, the two leaders are scheduled to attend the annual Russian Black Sea Fleet parade through the city's main street. Speaking at an international motorbike show outside the city, Putin thanked Yanukovych for helping raise the holiday's profile in Ukraine...

Kyiv-based organizations of the Ukrainian People's Party (UNP), the Congress of Ukrainian Nationalists (KUN), the Ukrainian National Assembly - Ukrainian National Self-Defense (UNA-UNSO) and the All-Ukrainian Union "Freedom" are getting ready to meet the leader of the Russian Orthodox Church in Kyiv in their own way. The Kyiv branch of the All-Ukrainian Union "Freedom" announced on Thursday that it will hold pickets to protest the Ukrainian visit of Patriarch Kirill. One picket will be held outside the Kyiv Pechersk Lavra Monastery on Sunday, July 25; another picket will be held in front of St. Sophia Cathedral on Monday, July 26; and a third one in Volodymyrska Hill on Tuesday, July 27...

Moscow Mayor Yuriy Luzhkov on Thursday embarrassed his Ukrainian friend, President Viktor Yanukovych, for the second time this week by openly claiming again that Sevastopl is a Russian city. Luzhkov, a persona non grata in Ukraine for the two years until Yanukovych lifted the ban on his entry in June, will be visiting Sevastopol on Saturday. Luzhkov attended Yanukovych’s birthday party...

Volume 3 of Volodymyr Vynnychenko's diary is an excellent primary source for the study of the life and thought of this major Ukrainian writer and political figure as well as of the cultural climate of Eastern and Western Europe from 1926 to 1928. Living in exile in France, Vynnychenko recorded his interaction with West European cultural figures, as well as his relations with the Ukrainian intelligentsia and emigre politicians. This volume contains many of his theories and musings on political, cultural, and philosophical issues...

In reality, Washington and the EU have failed to punish Russia for not adhering to the ceasefire brokered by French President Nicolas Sarkozy which called for Russia to pull its troops back to pre-engagement lines. Instead, Russia has built large forward-action military bases that are offensive, not defensive, in nature. An illuminating analysis in the reputable British magazine Jane's Defence Weekly (June 29) alleges that while the US denies it has instituted an arms embargo on Georgia, the reality is that...