Ukraine's leading English-language newspaper since 1995

The Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, named after Soviet Foreign Minister Vyacheslav Molotov (signing) and German Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop (back, right of Soviet dictator Josef Stalin), was a non-aggression pact dated Aug. 23, 1939. Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko has compared the talks on the provision of a $5 billion Russian loan to Kyiv to the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact, and blamed Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko for betraying the national interests.

"What is particularly hard to comment on from the moral and psychological points of view is that behind these two large agreements [on gas] actually stands a secretive 'Molotov-Ribbentrop protocol,' when we are talking about the $5 billion Russian loan to Ukraine," Yushchenko said at the National Security and Defense Council in Kyiv on Tuesday.