Vladimir Putin, Russia's Prime Minister and former President, is not renowned for his love of literature. But on Sunday he gave Russian journalists an unexpected reading tip: the diaries of Anton Denikin, a commander in the White Army, which fought the Bolsheviks after the revolution in 1917. (See TIME's photos of last year's war in Georgia.) "He has a discussion there about Big Russia and Little Russia — Ukraine," Russian news wires quoted Putin as saying after laying a wreath in Moscow at the grave of Denikin, who is...

Ukraine has threatened Germany with economic consequences if it fails to ratify a treaty that would move it closer to Europe. A leading member of President Victor Yanukovych's political party told the news website Spiegel Online that failure to approve the European Union association agreement with Ukraine would be bad for German businesses. “Without the treaty, German access to the Ukrainian market will be limited,” Leonid Kozhara, member of parliament and the deputy chairman of the Party of Regions said. He was responding to a statement by German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle who said...

Led by Germany, a number of European countries have mounted diplomatic pressure on Ukraine to release key opposition leader, former prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko, but the concerted effort may widen the already growing gap between Ukraine and the European Union without bringing desirable results. Significance The leaders of five EU countries have boycotted the Central and Eastern European summit to be held on May 11-12 in Ukraine. Together with a number of other high-ranking EU officials, they will also not attend European Football Championship co-hosted by Poland and Ukraine in June...

For the first time in more than two centuries, Ukraine sees its way to independence from Moscow. That path tracks through a patch of sealed Soviet-era natural gas wells that are ready to be tapped once again and fields of shale rocks that the U.S. Geological Survey estimates will hold enough gas to fire the eastern European nation for 100 years or more. Royal Dutch Shell Plc (RDSA), Exxon Mobil Corp. (XOM) (XOM), and Chevron Corp. (CVX) (CVX) -- three of the world’s four largest oil companies -- bid last week for Ukrainian exploration rights. “Ukraine is low-hanging fruit,” said Bertrand des Pallieres, chief executive officer of Cadogan Petroleum Plc (CAD), a London-based oil explorer with interests...

Ukraine's ruling Party of Regions (PoR) has hired Burson-Marsteller - a top PR company in Brussels - amid a smear campaign against former prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko. Robert Mack, a senior manager at Burson-Marsteller, told EUobserver: "Our brief is to help the PoR communicate its activities as the governing party of Ukraine, as well as to help it explain better its position on the Yulia Tymoshenko case." One of his staff said it was hired "several weeks ago." Its tasks include setting up press interviews for Ukraine's deputy prosecutor general, Renat Kuzmin, when he visits the EU capital next week. Kuzmin in the Financial Times on 1 April accused Tymoshenko of involvement...

Ukraine has begun construction of a new protection shell over the damaged reactor at the Chornobyl nuclear power plant. The work to replace the existing shell, which is crumbling and leaking radiation, comes on the 26th anniversary of the world's worst civilian nuclear disaster there. The new shelter, weighing 20,000 tons, is due to be completed by 2015. Speaking in a ceremony marking the start of construction, Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych thanked international donors for pledging a reported $980 million to build the new shelter and a nuclear fuel waste facility. "I am pleased to say that...

On April 19 representatives from the Ukrainian Canadian community concluded a successful trip to Ukraine as members of the delegation accompanying International Cooperation Minister, the Honourable Beverley Oda's recent mission to Ukraine. The Minister's meetings included Prime Minister Mykola Azarov, Economy Minister Petro Poroshenko and Agriculture Minister Nikolai Pryasyazhnuk. The delegation also visited the National Holodomor Museum in Kyiv, and met with representatives of oblast, regional and local government officials; representatives from civil society groups; CIDA administrators; local project partners and opposition party representatives. "We are pleased that the government of Canada...

The winners of the Pulitzer Prize 2012 have been recently announced. The 100,000 cash prizes will be awarded to the winners on May 7 in New York. The Pulitzer Award is one of the most prestigious in the sphere of journalism. The reason is not about the sum of the cash prize, which is quite modest. The award founded by Hungarian-born American journalist Joseph Pulitzer conveys a tremendous honor to the winners. It has been given since 1917 for the achievements made in drama, literature, music, and journalism. This year the list of the winners show an explicit social emphasis. The award has been given to journalists or periodicals, whose publications have helped prevent violence, expose corruption deeds or abuse of office. For example...

At shortly after 3:00 p.m. on April 24, 2012, the House of Commons in Ottawa unanimously approved the following historic motion introduced by Minister Jason Kenney recognizing the deeds of Metropolitan Sheptytsky: Whereas Metropolitan Andriy Sheptytsky (1865-1944) of the Ukrainian Catholic Church, was the leader of Western Ukraine's largest faith group during the period of the Second World War; and Whereas in the darkest period of Europe's history, with the deepening horrors of the mass murder of Jews in their homelands in Eastern Europe under German occupation during World War II, he spoke out eloquently against anti-Jewish violence and urged his congregants in a famous homily: “Thou Shalt Not Kill;” and Whereas leaders and representatives of all Ukraine's major faith...

Last year, thanks to the support of Ukrainians in Canada and the United states, we began the restoration process of the partly destroyed, noteworthy Cathedral of St. Mary the Protectress of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church – Kyiv Patriarchate in the village of Dikhtiarivka in the Chernihiv Oblast. This project is led by the director of the Kyiv Research Institutes of Theory and History of Architecture and City Building, architect Serhii Yurchenko. He is deeply grateful to the sponsors of the project: the Ucrainica Research Institute affiliated with the Ukrainian League of Canada and St. Andrew’s Ukrainian Orthodox Society of the United States, for the generous donation of $20,000 to continue the rebuilding of the shrine in 2011. Many generous...