24th October 2011
I was in London last week meeting ministers; experts dealing with Ukraine in a number of government departments; and the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Ukraine, made up of members of the House of Commons and House of Lords with a particular interest in this country. People in the UK are keen to know what is […]
17th October 2011
The towers of the fortress rise above the Black Sea. Within mighty walls, bastions soar. Our guide says it’s hard to be sure who built which bits: over the past two millennia, the site has been occupied by Greeks, Romans, Poles, Goths, Huns, Moldovans, Hungarians, Bulgarians, Tatars, Russians, Genoese and Turks. Down the road there […]
13th October 2011
This week, for almost the first time since I arrived in Ukraine in June 2008, Ukraine has been the number one item on the BBC World News website and in other media around the world. Friends have been getting in touch to ask me what’s going on, and where Ukraine is going. It’s an important […]
12th October 2011
Following the verdict in the Tymoshenko trial, the Foreign Secretary, William Hague, said: “The conviction of the Ukrainian opposition politician, Yuliya Tymoshenko, by a court in Kyiv is deeply concerning. Independent legal experts including the Danish Helsinki Committee have concluded that Ms Tymoshenko’s trial was subject to numerous and serious violations of fundamental legal principles, […]
10th October 2011
How radioactive is the environment at the Chornobyl Exclusion Zone? The question seems particularly pertinent when you’re planting a tree and the wind is blowing sand in your eyes. This was the scene recently when I visited Chornobyl with Volodymyr Kholosha, Head of the State Agency of Ukraine for the management of the Chornobyl Exclusion […]
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6th October 2011
The following is a guest blog from Mary and Detlef Golletz, friends of mine who visited in the summer. “Kyiv?” friends asked quizzically as we discussed plans for a short break. A reasonable question, given that it proved impossible to buy local currency in the UK and our 2008 Lonely Planet Guide said that the […]
5th October 2011
A long time ago in a previous job I used to lecture students and bureaucrats on the EU budgetary process. I used to hand out a mind-bogglingly complicated diagram, filled with jargon, arrows and boxes, which seemed to have been designed to be as confusing as possible. “For a start,” I would say, “ignore that […]
4th October 2011
When I was posted in Vienna from 1984-7 I enjoyed watching the signs that the seasons were changing. As an autumn chill crept into the air, the Viennese hailed the arrival of the “Russian crows” – big, capable-looking birds which would strut their stuff around the parks and squares of the city for a couple […]
30th September 2011
The UK Deputy Prime Minister, Nick Clegg, made an important speech during the Eastern Partnership in Warsaw on 29 September. Key sections include: “It is in the EU’s clear interests to offer meaningful integration to [our Eastern] neighbours, including through full EU membership, where the criteria are rigorously met… So the UK is clear: ‘no’ […]
29th September 2011
What is the healthiest place in Kyiv? At a recent reception at the residence, I began to suspect it might be my lounge. The reason was that the room was crammed with over 80 guests representing the cream of the Ukrainian medical profession and, in particular, many of the country’s top interventional cardiologists. Other medical […]