Ukraine's leading English-language newspaper since 1995

In the light of comments by premier Viktor Yanukovych casting doubts on Ukraine’s stated aims of Euro-Atlantic integration, it is time President Yushchenko spoke up

ne’s stated goals of Euro-Atlantic integration and WTO membership. The Kremlin must have had trouble restraining its delight.

But it did a good job anyway. During the Moscow visit, Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov noted that the price Gazprom would charge for its blue fuel in the last quarter of this year is still under consideration. All statements on the issue from the new and previous governments in Kyiv hadn’t even considered that Ukraine would pay more until next year at the earliest.

For its part, the reaction of the pro-Western team of President Viktor Yushchenko was only to mumble feeble assurances of the country’s unchanged course after the fact. But the former governor of Donetsk didn’t stop there, questioning Yushchenko’s right to issue decrees and continuing to push for more “reforms”, which would effectively cancel Yushchenko’s right to appoint governors. Following the controversial constitutional amendments that came into effect in January, the president has already lost significant influence to his former foe from the Orange Revolution that brought Yushchenko to power.

Yanukovych and his team from the Donbass control parliament and the cabinet as part of a coalition with two leftist parties that only a few months ago looked destined to breathe their last breath in the halls of power. Yushchenko spoke a lot during the Orange Revolution, but can’t seem to muster the vocabulary now. Ukrainians were promised bandits would be put in jail. Now, at least three prominent political figures who were reported to have fled to Russia to escape justice in Ukraine look unlikely to be further sought by the prosecutor’s office. Perhaps sentences for former officials would create more instability, and nobody denies that Ukraine needs good relations with Russia, but it’s about time that Yushchenko speak up – and let the country know where it is going.