Viktor Yanukovych, the ruler whose attempt to put down a protest movement with brutal force started his own downfall, is now a fugitive with a warrant issued against him.

A Ukrainian protester fell in love with a policeman in Kiev, then leveraged the affair to criticise Government forces on live TV.

Ukraine's Parliament chose a post-revolutionary president yesterday as politicians tried to assemble a caretaker Cabinet under the critical gaze of thousands of protesters.

This weekend the fates of President Viktor Yanukovych and former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko once again took dramatically opposite turns.

For a moment, the white blanket serving as a shroud fell back, revealing the dead man's frozen face and a crimson bullet wound on the left side of his head.

The European Union has imposed its first sanctions against Ukraine, joining the United States in a two-pronged campaign of public pressure and backroom diplomacy.

When a Government announces an "anti-terror operation", that generally means it has decided to kill some people.

A new appeal went out from the surviving barricades of Kiev yesterday: bring anything that will burn!

About 200,000 anti-government protesters converged on the central square of Ukraine's capital in a dramatic show of morale after nearly four weeks of daily protests.

Towering over his fellow protest leaders, reigning world heavyweight boxing champion Vitali Klitschko has emerged as Ukraine's most popular opposition figure and has ambitions to become its next president.

A protest by about 300,000 Ukrainians angered by their government's decision to freeze integration with the West turned violent when a group of demonstrators besieged the president's office and police drove them back with truncheons.

European Union leaders sought to revive a stalled agreement with Ukraine after the former Soviet republic shocked the 28-country bloc last week by opting for closer ties with Russia in a geopolitical tug-of-war.

Birdsong and plant life belie the radioactivity that remains 30 years after Chernobyl meltdown, writes David Brown.

Ukraine has reportedly agreed a deal with a Chinese company to lease 5 per cent of its land to feed China's burgeoning population.

The western Ukrainian city of Lviv provides a glimpse of what Krakow, Budapest, Prague and Vienna were like 25 years ago - before they became Central European tourist hot spots.

Two days in chilly Ukraine warm the tastebuds of Michael McKerrow.

A woman who fled the biggest nuclear power disaster in history says the Christchurch earthquakes have been far more terrifying.

As nuclear fears rise around the world, Robin McKiere visits the scene of Ukraine's 1986 explosion.

Animals just keep on dying of neglect at the notorious Kiev Zoo.

Kiwi blokes are shipping in mail-order brides, new research suggests, because well-educated New Zealand women turn up their noses at their male counterparts.