In an interview with C-SPAN, Don Bacon laid out the dire situation Ukraine finds itself in on the battlefield, saying if the bills don’t pass “the Russians will be in Kyiv.”
Mykola Tochytskyi has been appointed as a new deputy head of the Presidential Office, President Volodymyr Zelensky announced on April 15 by decree.
Andrii Sybiha, a deputy head of the Presidential Office, has been named the first deputy foreign minister, replacing Mykola Tochytskyi, said Taras Melnychuk, the government's representative in the parliament, on April 12.
Almost half of Ukrainians would entrust the government in the post-war period to a political party founded by representatives of the country's military, according to a survey by the Razumkov Center published on April 10.
In recent months, Ukraine’s parliament is drifting to a standstill, as the government struggles to gather necessary votes during sessions. The reason is not political disagreement over pending legislation, but a general sense of frustration among parliament’s members, according to experts and lawmakers who spoke to the Kyiv
Former President Petro Poroshenko said on April 2 he plans to run for the presidential office again, but only once the war with Russia ends.
Most Ukrainians say they understand the motivation of those who try to avoid mobilization, according to a poll by Ukraine's Institute of Social and Political Psychology published on April 1. At the same time, almost 43% of respondents said they were ashamed of men who evade mobilization.
Ukrainians can expect more government reshuffles in the near future, President Volodymyr Zelensky said in his evening address on March 30.
President Volodymyr Zelensky on March 29 dismissed Andrii Smirnov and Oleksii Dniprov from their posts as deputy heads of the Presidential Office.
The parliament's National Security and Defense Committee reviewed all the 4,269 amendments of a mobilization bill, lawmaker Yaroslav Zhelezniak said on March 29.
Lawmaker Mariana Bezuhla, formerly a member of President Volodymyr Zelensky's Servant of the People party, backtracked on her bill proposing strict prison sentences for "representing Ukraine abroad" without "being officially authorized to do so."
According to Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal, 20,000 government vacancies have already been cut in 2024.
Editor's Note: This story initially mistakenly said that President Volodymyr Zelensky and Commander-in-Chief Valerii Zaluzhnyi haven't been seen together in public in two months. It was corrected since the two were seen together in public more recently. After successfully taking Ukraine through the initial stages of the all-out war, President
When Russian President Vladimir Putin holds a fake vote to extend his mandate in March 2024, Ukraine will not be allowed to hold an election due to the martial law imposed amid Russia's aggression. This won't suddenly make Russia more democratic than Ukraine. If Russia had not invaded Ukraine, it
When Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky announced on Sept. 3 that Rustem Umerov was Ukraine's soon-to-be defense minister, he said the former MP "needs no introduction." Days before, Umerov had been rumored to be the main candidate to replace Oleksiy Reznikov, who had held the post since November 2021 and whose
A year into Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, there is little doubt in the West that Ukraine needs to win. Led by the U.S., Western support helped Ukraine push back Russian forces and kept Russian President Vladimir Putin from achieving his major warmongering goals. But Russia’s war
Former prime minister and leader of the Batkivshchyna party (26 seats in parliament) Yulia Tymoshenko along with fellow lawmaker Hryhoriy Nemyria are suing the foreign ministry to return their diplomatic passports, the Kyiv Independent learned from court records. Both were stripped of their diplomatic passports over the summer for not
The new Prosecutor General Andriy Kostin began his reign with a long-awaited move, ending the seemingly never-ending saga of choosing the country's top anti-corruption prosecutor. Oleksandr Klymenko, who won the job contest back in December, was formally named the head of the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office (SAPO) on July 28.
Parliament appointed lawmaker Andriy Kostin, a member of President Volodymyr Zelensky's party, as prosecutor general. 299 lawmakers supported the president's candidate on July 27. Kostin, seen as a staunch Zelensky loyalist, has been accused of sabotaging judicial reform. He also used to be the Zelensky administration's preferred candidate for the
Oleksiy Symonenko, who became acting prosecutor general on July 17, may be formally appointed as the prosecutor general by the Verkhovna Rada next week, with his past record suggesting he values loyalty to the presidential administration more than being effective on the job. “He’s as loyal to the authorities
Ukraine’s richest man doesn’t want to be called an oligarch anymore. For that, he’s ready to publicly distance himself from politics and relinquish his sway over the domestic media market. Rinat Akhmetov, who owns System Capital Management (SCM), the country’s largest holding and the bulk of
Editor's Note: Prosecutor General Iryna Venediktova and Security Service Head Ivan Bakanov were fired by parliament on July 19, 10 hours after the article was published. President Volodymyr Zelensky dropped major news on a typically slow Sunday evening, removing from office two of his staunchest allies – Prosecutor General Iryna Venediktova
Ukrainian-born U.S. Congresswoman Victoria Spartz has recently come out with sweeping accusations against President Volodymyr Zelensky’s Chief of Staff Andriy Yermak. The accusations, published on July 8 and July 9, range from corruption and sabotage of reforms to allegedly serving Russian interests. Yermak hasn't commented on the accusations.
In the Battle of Donbas, Ukraine’s military has made a painful yet long-anticipated decision — withdrawing from the last patches of the city of Sievierodonetsk. By June 25, the last Ukrainian combat units left their ruined positions in the city’s industrial zone for Lysychansk, a heavily fortified point to
When Russia’s full-scale invasion began on Feb. 24, Serhiy Prytula, comedian turned politician, quit everything he was working on to fully devote himself to helping Ukraine. Since then, his charity has crowdfunded over Hr 1 billion ($34 million), becoming one of the largest in Ukraine after Come Back Alive,
Editor's Note: The following is the full translated transcript of the speech delivered by President Volodymyr Zelensky at the 58th Munich Security Conference on Feb. 19. It was published by the President's Office and is republished here without changes. Zelensky delivered the speech in Ukrainian. Find the highlights here. Ladies
Oleksandr Trukhin, a lawmaker from the governing President Volodymyr Zelensky’s Servant of the People faction, was kicked out of the party after a journalistic investigation exposed his attempts to bribe police officers at a car crash site. The party announced the decision to expel Trukhin on Feb. 2, a
Serhii Kuzminykh, a member of President Volodymyr Zelensky’s Servant of the People parliamentary faction, was caught while allegedly accepting an Hr 558,000 ($20,000) bribe on Jan. 28, according to law enforcement sources of Ukrainian news websites Ukrainska Pravda and Censor.Net. The National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) said
The British government has accused the Kremlin of seeking to install a pro-Russian leadership in Ukraine, in a statement on Jan. 22. "We have information that indicates the Russian government is looking to install a pro-Russian leader in Kyiv as it considers whether to invade and occupy Ukraine," the statement
A selection panel on Jan. 21 effectively launched Ukraine’s long-awaited judicial reform process, starting a contest for jobs at the High Qualification Commission, a judicial governing body. The panel was created in September, but its work has been delayed due to obstruction by Ukraine’s judiciary and uncertainty over
Kyiv’s Pechersk District Court made its long-anticipated ruling on the pre-trial arrangements of ex-President Petro Poroshenko. On Jan. 19, the court ordered Poroshenko to sign a writ of personal recognizance, which is a pledge by the defendant to attend court without posting bail. The court chose not to place
Six hours into ex-President Petro Poroshenko's arrest hearing on Jan. 17, the judge left for the chambers, allegedly for a 20-minute break. He never reappeared in the courtroom. After nearly six hours without the judge, the hearing was postponed until Jan. 19. Poroshenko left the courthouse. "I'll see you all
