23 August

Houses of the Dead.  Sunday morning to the opening of the new "Art Arsenal" by President Yushchenko.  Prime Minister Tymoshenko and other political leaders are present; I have a chat with Acting Foreign Minister Handohiy.  The new exhibition space is culture on a colossal scale: proponents of the scheme say that when finished it will be bigger than the Louvre or the Hermitage.  For now only a single, 168-metre long gallery is complete.  For the opening, the curators have assembled a sculpture exhibition called "De Profundis", backed up with video and music installations.  Art on display includes some works by the fabulous, Brancusi-like cubist Alexander Archipenko.  I'm impressed too by bronze-age stone sculptures dating from 3,000 BC, including statues of Scythian warriors and burial steles.  There's a display of Trypillian ceramics and statuettes dating from 5,500-3,000 BC in central and western Ukraine.  Many of the remains were excavated from buildings burned when the Trypillians moved from one place to another, the so-called "Houses of the Dead".  It's humbling to come across an entire civilisation I've never heard of.  In the evening I attend an Independence Day reception in the grounds of the St Sophia cathedral - a world-class setting.  Another chance to have a chat to a few people, including the Head of the Constitutional Court, Mr Stryzhak.  The Constitutional Court is often asked to act as an impartial arbiter in making vital decisions affecting Ukrainian politics, and this autumn is likely to be no exception.