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Last reviewed: 19 November 2009

 

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Politics

Recent political developments

Following constitutional changes agreed in December 2004, which entered force on 1 January 2006, Ukraine is a parliamentary-presidential democracy. The President is Head of State. The Prime Minister and his Cabinet of Ministers is the senior executive body. With effect from the holding of parliamentary elections in March 2006, the parliament (Supreme Rada) nominates the Prime Minister, who in turn nominates the cabinet with parliamentary approval (except for the defence and foreign ministers, whom the president nominates, again with the approval of deputies). The parliament adopts legislation, ratifies international agreements, and approves the budget. Its members are elected to five-year terms. Political groupings in Ukraine include parties across the right-left spectrum, including liberals, socialists, agrarians, nationalists, various centrist and independent forces, Communists and radical left parties. The Constitution mandates a pluralistic political system and protection of basic human rights and liberties.

Following independence and up to 2006, Ukraine's system provided for strong presidential powers. Leonid Kravchuk, former Chairman of the Ukrainian Supreme Soviet, was President from December 1991 until July 1994. Leonid Kuchma was President for two terms from 1994-2004.

Kuchma's second term was marred by scandals over allegations of widespread official corruption, the murder of the independent journalist Georgiy Gongadze and alleged sales of the Kolchuga military detection system to Saddam Hussein's Iraq. Opposition to Kuchma coalesced around the popular reformist Prime Minister Viktor Yushchenko who was forced to resign from office in April 2001. His 'Our Ukraine' coalition was the largest political party in parliamentary elections in May 2002.

In September 2000, Georgiy Gongadze, an internet-based investigative journalist who reported on Ukraine's corrupt oligarchs and their political sponsors, disappeared. His headless body was discovered two months later. Gongadze's disappearance and death blossomed into the deepest political crisis in Ukraine since independence when, in November 2000, the leader of the Socialist Party (Oleksandr Moroz) told the Rada that he had recordings of Kuchma, his chief of staff, the head of state security, and the interior minister suggesting their complicity in the journalist's disappearance. The recordings also contained conversations apparently implicating Kuchma and others in the government in abuse of office, corruption and possible election fraud. The scandal prompted widespread public demonstrations against Kuchma and the Rada's pro-presidential majority collapsed.

Taking advantage of Kuchma's weakness, forces in the Rada opposed to reform, including the Communists and centrist oligarch-led parties, engineered a vote of no confidence against Prime Minister Yushchenko in April 2001 and forced him to resign. Kuchma nominated Anatoliy Kinakh in his place. Pro-reform centre-right parities refused to support Kinakh, but thanks to the support of oligarch-led so-called 'centrist' factions, Kuchma was able to put together enough votes to secure Kinakh's confirmation in May 2001.

In March 2002, parliamentary elections brought Ukraine closer to meeting international democratic standards. No one bloc or orientation won a clear majority. But the elections returned a sizeable reformist bloc, namely the 'Our Ukraine' faction, headed by the former Prime Minister Viktor Yushchenko.

In September 2002, relatively peaceful demonstrations against Kuchma took place in Kyiv and in major Ukrainian cities. The US then announced that the FBI had authenticated a recording of President Kuchma in July 2000 authorising the covert transfer of a Kolchuga military passive detection system to Iraq. (This recording was from the same source as that concerning the murdered journalist, Gongadze.) The transfer was never proven, but in reaction, NATO downgraded a planned NATO-Ukraine summit in November 2002 to a NATO-Ukraine Commission (NUC) at Foreign Minister level. Even so, the NUC launched a NATO-Ukraine Action Plan, while the EU announced progress on its own initiative for a closer relationship (see NATO and EU below).

In November 2002, President Kuchma dismissed Kinakh and nominated Viktor Yanukovych, Governor of Donetsk oblast (region), as Prime Minister. Following his confirmation by the Rada, a new cabinet was formed.

Orange revolution

Campaigning for the presidential elections started in earnest in August 2004. Reformist former Prime Minister and leader of the 'Our Ukraine' bloc, Victor Yushchenko, and PM Victor Yanukovych were the clear front runners in a field of 26 candidates. After some initial prevarication, Kuchma endorsed the latter's candidacy in July. Although behind in the polls for much of the race, Yanukovych benefited from a high profile as Prime Minister (e.g. he attended the Olympics rather than Kuchma) and, according to the OSCE's reports, from media reporting heavily tilted in his favour. President Putin of Russia also gave Yanukovych his public support, including in Kyiv on the eve of the first round of the elections (31 October) during the anniversary of Ukraine's liberation during WWII. Yushchenko's campaign was affected by sudden severe illness which European scientists have now confirmed as due to the poison dioxin.

The OSCE/ODIHR and Council of Europe observer mission concluded that the first round of the elections did not meet European standards for free and fair democratic elections. Despite these handicaps, and an unexplained delay in the announcement of the results, Yushchenko narrowly beat PM Yanukovych by 39.87% to 39.32%. Socialistleader Moroz, who had come third with 7%, publicly backed Yushchenko for the run-off between the two leading candidates scheduled for 21 November.

Although opinion and exit polls showed Yushchenko with a clear lead (7-15%), the results tallied by the Central Election Commission on 22 November gave Yanukovych a lead of 49.4% to 46.7% over Yushchenko. The OSCE issued a statement the same day saying that the election was not free and fair and the EU's Foreign Ministers meeting in Brussels issued a statement condemning the standards of the election and agreed to summon Ukraine's Ambassadors. Large-scale opposition demonstrations began in Kyiv and other cities across Ukraine to protest at the result. Despite the widespread condemnation of the elections, on 24 November the Central Election Commission declared Yanukovych the winner. But the next day the Supreme Court banned the official publication of the results while it heard the opposition's complaints.

With tension rising, the EU sent its High Representative Javier Solana to Kyiv. Together with the Presidents of Poland and Lithuania, Solana met all parties in an attempt to broker a solution to the growing crisis. Opposition pressure on the government to overturn the fraudulent election result continued to grow, with large-scale demonstrations (reaching over 500,000 people in Kyiv), a blockade of government offices, and a vote by parliament on 27 November to invalidate the election. Support for Yanukovych fell further when he seemed to imply that he would support secession of some of the eastern regions of Ukraine if he did not become President.

On 1 December a political agreement was reached between Yushchenko, Yanukovych and Kuchma at talks facilitated by HR Solana and the Presidents of Poland and Lithuania. This led to a decision on 3 December by the Supreme Court invalidating the second round of the elections and calling for a re-run on 26 December. Agreement was reached on 8 December to the re-run of the elections together with a package of constitutional reforms to transfer some of the powers of the President to the Prime Minister and Parliament. Yushchenko won the re-run election by an eight-point margin over Yanukovych. Yushchenko was inaugurated President on 23 January.

Tymoshenko government, Feb-Sept 2005

The Rada appointed a new government on 4 February 2005 following the approval by a substantial majority of Yulia Tymoshenko as Prime Minister. EU integration was the dominant theme of the new government's ambitious programme. The programme also confronted a number of the main domestic challenges in Ukraine, focusing on corruption as the number one problem.

The new authorities maintained the improvements in the media freedom and respect for the constitution. It also took positive steps to take forward the investigation into the murder of Georgiy Gongadze, as well as the cases of other missing journalists.

However, due to public disagreements within the government, Yushchenko decided to sack his entire cabinet on 8 September 2005, including Prime Minister Tymoshenko.

Yekhanurov government, Sept 2005-March 2006

Yushchenko appointed Yuri Yekhanurov as Prime Minister. Yekhanurov was a former economist and long time ally of Yushchenko's, having previously served as Deputy Prime Minister with him. After initially being rejected by the Rada, and following a pact between Yushchenko and his former presidential rival Regions Party leader Yanukovych, Yekhanurov was approved in a second vote on 22 September 2005. Yekhanurov set out his priorities as passing WTO legislation, a sound 2006 budget, and drawing a line under the controversial privatisation review. At the EU-Ukraine Summit on 1 December, the EU announced that Ukraine had met the technical criteria to be granted Market Economy Status.

March 2006 parliamentary elections

Parliamentary elections were held on 26 March 2006. The parties which passed the 3% electoral threshold were: Party of Regions (32% - 186 seats), Bloc Yuliya Tymoshenko (22% - 129 seats), Bloc Our Ukraine (14% - 81 seats), Socialist Party of Ukraine (6% - 33 seats) and Communist Party of Ukraine (4% - 21 seats). The elections were assessed by the OSCE to have been conducted largely in line with international standards, and were probably the freest and fairest elections ever held in the CIS region. They were held under constitutional changes which have given Ukraine a hybrid parliamentary-presidential system of government.

Yanukovych government, August 2006 - December 2007

A lengthy coalition building process followed the March 2006 elections. Initial attempts by Bloc Our Ukraine, Bloc Yuliya Tymoshenko and the Socialists to form an 'Orange' coalition failed and on 3 August an 'anti-crisis' coalition was formed by the Party of Regions, Communists and Socialists, with Viktor Yanukovych as PM. Before nominating Yanukovych as Prime Minister, President Yushchenko secured his agreement to the 'Universal' – a Declaration of National Unity, which lays out the policy framework for the new Government. Its aims include continuing Ukraine's European integration policy with EU membership the future goal, developing a working partnership with NATO with a view to membership and maintaining the Ukrainian language as the sole official language. It was signed by President Yushchenko, Party of Regions leader Viktor Yanukovych, Speaker of the Upper House Oleksandr Moroz, former Prime Minister Yuri Yekhanurov, representative of the party 'Our Ukraine' Roman Bezsmertniy, leader of the Socialist Party, Vasiliy Tsushko, and leader of the Communist Party, Petr Simonenko. Yuliya Tymoshenko refused to sign the document.

The co-habitation between President Yushchenko and Prime Minister Yanukovych proved uneasy. Differing interpretations of the constitution led to disagreements over the respective roles of President, Prime Minister, Cabinet and Parliament on some areas of policy and on appointments and dismissals of Ministers.

2007 parliamentary elections

On 2 April President Yushchenko issued a decree dissolving Parliament and ordering pre-term elections to be held on 27 May.On 2 April President Yushchenko issued a decree dissolving Parliament and ordering pre-term elections to be held on 27 May. The President's decree was in response to the Governing coalition's attempts to form a constitutional majority in Parliament through the incorporation of opposition deputies into the coalition. Both Government and Parliament refused to recognise the President's decree and instead forwarded it to the Constitutional Court to rule on its legality. On 26 April, President Yushchenko issued a further decree superseding his earlier one. The new decree again ordered the dissolution of Parliament but extended the date for fresh elections to 24 June. Parliament again forwarded the decree to the Constitutional Court. The political situation remained deadlocked until 27 May when President Yushchenko, Prime Minister Yanukovych and Parliamentary Speaker Moroz agreed a compromise package of measures to end the crisis. This package included provision for pre-term parliamentary elections, which were held on 30 September 2007.

The preliminary conclusions of the International Election Observation Mission stated that 'the 30 September 2007 pre-term parliamentary elections in Ukraine were conducted mostly in line with OSCE and Council of Europe commitments and other international standards for democratic elections, and confirm an open and competitive environment for the conduct of election processes'. This confirms the excellent progress Ukraine is making towards establishing itself as a European democracy. Five political parties crossed the 3% threshold required to enter parliament: Party of Regions (34% - 175 seats), Bloc Yulia Tymoshenko (31% - 156 seats), Our Ukraine Peoples Self Defence (14% - 72 seats), Communist Party (5% - 27 seats) and Bloc of Lytvyn (4% - 20 seats).

Tymoshenko government, December 2007 - present

On 23 November 2007, Bloc Yuliya Tymoshenko and Our Ukraine People's Self Defence signed a coalition Agreement. On 18 December 2007, Parliament voted in a new coalition Government, with Yuliya Tymoshenko as Prime Minister. On 16 September 2008, the Speaker of the Supreme Rada (Parliament) announced that this coalition had formally ceased to exist, following the withdrawal of the Our Ukraine People’s Self Defence bloc. On 8 October 2008, President Yushchenko issued a decree dissolving parliament and calling for pre-term parliamentary elections. On 15 December 2008, President Yushchenko stated that, due to the change in economic circumstances, elections were no longer a priority.

On 12 November 2008, the Speaker, Arseniy Yatseniuk, was dismissed by a vote in Parliament. On 9 December 2008, former speaker and leader of the Bloc of Lytvyn, Volodymyr Lytvyn was elected as his replacement. On 16 December 2008 a coalition agreement between the factions of Prime Minister Yuliya Tymoshenko's bloc, Our Ukraine-People's Self-Defence and Bloc of Lytvyn was signed in the Ukrainian parliament.

A Presidential election is due to take place in Ukraine on 17 January 2010.

Human rights

Ukraine has made good progress in recent years on democratisation and freedom of expression and the media, with three consecutive elections recognised as largely free and fair, and a diverse and lively media environment. Human Rights organisations in Ukraine are becoming increasingly involved in Government work to protect human rights. There are, however, a number of areas where further progress is required, for example on tackling corruption, strengthening the rule of law, reversing the rise in suspected serious racist and anti-semitic attacks, preventing people trafficking, improving the way in which detainees are treated by the law enforcement agencies and bringing those responsible for the murder of the journalist Georgiy Gongadze to justice. The UK is working closely with Ukraine on all of these issues, in particular through the European Union, the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe and the Council of Europe.

The death penalty in Ukraine was abolished in February 2000, when the Ukrainian parliament removed the death penalty from the criminal code. Ukraine has also ratified Protocol No. 6 to the European Convention on Human Rights in line with her commitments to the Council of Europe.

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Contacts

Ukraine, Kyiv, British Embassy

Address:

British Embassy
9 Desyatynna St.
Kyiv 01025

Consular/Visa Section:
Artyom Business Centre
4, Glybochytska St.
Kyiv 04050

Telephone:


Fax:

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+380 44 494 3418: Visa/Consular

Office hours:

Mon-Fri: 09:00-13:00/14:00-17:00 (Local Time = GMT+2)

Website: http://ukinukraine.fco.gov.uk/en

Ukraine, Kiev, British Council