Shcherban had no problems with Lazarenko

A television video of an interview with Yevhen Shcherban recorded just a few months before his murder has come to light.

Shcherban speaks highly of Lazarenko: "Pavlo Lazarenko has taken his rightful place (on becoming appointed prime minister). He is a 'top man' [khazyain], he has demonstrated success in his own [Dnipropetrovsk] region. This is a worthy person who has taken up an appropriate position. A man has come to power who shares our views."  Doesn't sound like a man who felt under threat from Lazarenko...

Germany has taken its gloves off and carpeted Ukraine's ambassador to Berlin after Ukrainian authorities stepped up the pressure on Yulia Tymoshenko's defence councillor, parliamentary deputy Sergey Vlasenko.

According to Frankfurter Allgemeinde. the German Foreign Ministry and the Office of the Federal Chancellor  believe: "Ukraine can forget about the much desired association agreement with the EU, if the issue with Tymoshenko's detention is not solved".

This is hardly surprising. The witness testifying in Monday's pretrial hearings in to Yevhen Shcherban's murder, Volodymyr Shcherban, may well be being blackmailed to provide false evidence against Tymoshenko.

In January 2002 he was under investigation by a parliamentary committee for illegal appropriation of property in Sumy, where he was governor. He also allegedly rigged communal heating charges and electricity charges in the town. He was also accused of filling law enforcement agencies there with his own people from Donetsk. This case is falling apart at the seams already. Ukraine's judiciary is daily providing more evidence of its incompetence, and that it is a tool of political oppression.