The current wave of public protests could perhaps introduce a new long-lasting civic and pro-democracy movement in Ukraine. This movement could even influence the power elites to re-start reforms and integration with the EU. In order to be successful, the Euromaidan has to learn lessons of the Ukrainian civic movement of 2004, now called the ‘Maidan.’ The main lessons the Maidan taught us are peacefulness, promotion of solidarity, and re-integration of the country.

1. Peaceful protest. The Maidan did not give the ‘hawks’ from Kuchma's (Leonid Kuchma was Ukraine’s president from 1994 through 2004) administration the reasons for the use of force against the protesters in November 2004. It was the lack of violence that made the orange movement highly legitimate so that both internal and extern ... Read more »

To justify its invasion of Crimea, the Kremlin and state-run media went into full fabrication mode this days. Russian mass media seeking to make sense of Ukraine’s complex identity issues continue to latch onto language as a shorthand way of understanding the rival geopolitical sympathies in the country. However, in reality, a person’s mother tongue is simply not an accurate guide to their political affiliation in today’s Ukraine. International coverage of Ukraine’s Euromaidan revolution and Russia’s subsequent military invasion has been badly hampered by the highly inaccurate assumption that all of the country’s Russian speakers want Ukraine to remain in the Russian orbit, while Ukrainian speakers are universally pro-EU. This is not merely overly simplistic – it is dangerously misleading.

The truth is - there are actually millions of Russ ... Read more »

As protests continue in Ukraine, journalists are finding themselves increasingly under threat from different parts of the country we constantly receive signals about intimidation and aggression towards reporters and the situation appears not have improved in the meantime. In some cases, journalists appear to have been specifically targeted. Away from the media headlines, ordinary Ukrainians — journalists, human rights activists, trade unionists—suffer political persecution. Many endure violence, imprisonment or exile. Elsewhere, out-of-court persecution of public activists has not stopped. Violations of freedom of peaceful assembly and freedom of association have grown more aggressive. While the imprisonment of high profile politicians gains mass media coverage, the plight of public activists, journalists, human rights activists, NGO members, participants of tr ... Read more »

Ukraine is a source country for trafficked women, and is currently one of the largest exporters of women to the international sex industry The 'exotic beauty' of Ukrainian and Russian women has made them the most valuable commodities in the current international sex trade. Over 420,000 Ukrainian women between the ages of 15 and 27 have been trafficked in the past decade. Our recent study reveals that one in every 10 Ukrainian persons knows someone in their community who has been trafficked.

The majority of Ukrainian women are trafficked to Turkey, Russia, Poland and other western European nations including Uk. Widespread poverty, lack of employment opportunities (75% of unemployed are women) and discrimination against women has caused a large trend for young women to search for jobs in the EU Working abroad is most Ukrainian women's dream, and most yo ... Read more »

Unfortunately we have to admit that the full freedom of expression in Ukraine has not been achieved. Moreover, freedom of expression has actually declined. As we can see, the situation is critical: Ukrainians are once again afraid to speak the truth, because of fear for the lives. I think the society itself must address this problem. If the nation unites in speaking the truth, it would shake up the government and prompt them to reconsider their actions. Let's put fear and doubts aside, let's stay honest and not allow those in power to destroy the biggest value - freedom, freedom of choice, freedom of thought, and freedom of expression! That's why we, the association of journalists «Independence House» are initiating a survey on the following topic:

«Do you consider Ukraine as a free country?»

This survey will became a firs ... Read more »