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Editor's note: Oleksii Khmara is executive director of Transparency International Ukraine, the Ukraine chapter of Transparency International. The views expressed are the writers' own.

(CNN) -- A vintage car collection, exotic birds and a gaudy palace; former Ukraine President Viktor Yanukovych was seemingly living the high life even as his country's economy stalled. Now, as economic growth goes into reverse, Ukraine is in desperate need of financial help. The question is whether the country's lawmakers will do what they must to persuade the world that there won't be a repeat of Yanukovych's gaudy lifestyle.

Oleksii Khmara

Last month, anti-corruption protesters in Ukraine surrounded the Kiev parliament building waving gold-painted loaves of bread. The demonstration was aimed at persuading lawmakers to pass strong anti-corruption legislation that would prohibit political leaders like Yanukovych from living gilded lifestyles funded by state coffers.

Sadly, lawmakers balked, and the legislation failed by eight votes as too many members of parliament abstained. The vote was a significant setback to President Petro Poroshenko, who had promised to clean up corruption in his presidential campaign. But more importantly, the vote was a blow against efforts to revive Ukraine's economy as the legislation is a prerequisite to securing the next vital tranche of the $17 billion multilateral loan package from the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and the European Union.

The cash is urgently needed if Ukraine is to shore up both its economy and its borders. True, a ceasefire has brought with it a lull in the fighting between government forces and pro-Russian rebels. But clashes have continued even as Russia continues to turn the screws with its own set of sanctions.

The problem for Ukraine is that Yanukovych's lifestyle -- allegedly funded through sweetheart deals and shady companies -- has left the international community wary of handing money over to the government without some guarantee that the rule of law will apply to those handling the funds. After all, Ukraine ranked 144th out of 177 countries in the 2013 Transparency International Corruption Perceptions index, with a score that indicated rampant corruption.

The failure of last month's vote leaves Poroshenko with two more chances before a parliamentary election later this month to push through the required legislation -- on October 7 and October 14. The laws being tabled are a strong set of regulations that organizations including Transparency International Ukraine have helped draft (and indeed have been advocating for years), including the creation of a dedicated National Anti-Corruption Bureau with investigatory powers to centralize what is now dealt with by an ad hoc group of offices that fail to share information and work together.

In addition, the proposals include a time-bound, three-year National Anti-corruption Strategic Plan that sets goals for implementing laws, as well as a law that would make it possible to try those suspected of corruption even if they are not in Ukraine. (The absence of such legislation is thwarting the prosecution and the return of assets allegedly stolen by Yanukovych, who has fled to Russia.)

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Ukraine must tackle corruption

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Cold front:Russia, Ukraine, and the EU failed to close a deal this week that would temporarily resume gas flows to Ukraine. Kiev is reversing flows from western neighbors, but those same countries have seen their Russian supplies dropunder mysterious circumstances. As winter nears, Ukrainians aren't taking any chances;They're stocking up on blankets, sealing up windows,and chopping extra wood.

Double digits: Suddenly, the world has more oil than it knows what to do with.The prolonged slide in crude prices has sent gas prices to four-year lowsfor US consumers, but it is unwelcome news for Russia and Iran. Their energy-based economies are already battered by international sanctions and cannot sustain long stretches with oil below $100.It points to bad news for the global economy as well.

CCS: "Clean coal" may be derided as mere PR for the world's most polluting fuel, but the vision of coal power with all the energy upsides and fewer climate downsides came a step closer to reality Thursday withthe openingof the world's first commercial carbon capture and storage plant.If it can demonstrate viability on a large scale, the technology would servea vital role in global efforts to combat climate change.

Fracking in the US: The story of one man's oil well [The Christian Science Monitor] US shale gets personal for writer William Sargentwhen wildcatters offer him thousands of dollars to recover oil from his Texas well with CO2 flooding. Torn between energy prosperity and environmental concerns, Sargent flies to Texas from his Massachusetts home, hoping to make up his mind and see the boom firsthand.

How Green Is Europe?[The American] "'Germany produces half of energy with solar.' That was the recent headline on a German website of news in English, and it would have duly impressed anybody whose understanding of energy matters extends to just such headlines," writes Vaclav Smil, an interdisciplinary analyst and author. "But the headline, totally wrong, was also a perfect example of why it is so important to deconstruct the reports about green Europe."

Perovskite Offers Shot at Cheaper Solar Energy [The Wall Street Journal] Perovskite, a lower-cost alternative to silicone, could be the next big thing in solar. The compoud is quickly catching up to silicon, jumping from 10 to 20 percent efficiency in two short years. Its efficiency and flexibility are why scientists are calling it a potential game-changer for solar power.

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Ukraine gas talks stall; Oil prices slide; A step toward 'clean coal' [Recharge]

The U.S. is helping Ukraine (UADPRYOY) plan how to keep homes and businesses heated during winter as the European Unions incoming chief diplomat warned the government in Kiev may struggle as freezing temperatures approach.

Fighting continued today in eastern Ukraine amid moves to establish a buffer zone to help cement a wobbly truce that went into effect a little more than a month ago between government forces and pro-Russian separatists.

We have a team in Ukraine looking at the immediate issues of this winter, U.S. Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz said yesterday at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York. The issues are, unfortunately, challenging. Analysts are studying ways to heat homes with fuels other than natural gas, he said.

Ukraine is bracing for the onset of winter, when temperatures at times drop below minus 20 degrees Celsius (minus 4 degrees Fahrenheit), with Russian gas supplies shut off and energy infrastructure damaged by the fighting thats engulfed the countrys easternmost regions. The fuel shortage has already limited access to hot water.

In Brussels, Italian Foreign Minister Federica Mogherini said yesterday that Ukraine faces a winter that is going to be probably a nightmare from the economic point of view, from the energy point of view. Mogherini was speaking at a hearing on her nomination to become the EUs foreign policy chief.

In Kiev, President Petro Poroshenko met with U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland and discussed the need for urgent measures to avoid a humanitarian disaster in his countrys east with winter drawing near, according to the presidents website. Poroshenko spoke of restoring supplies of natural gas, electricity and food products.

While a cease-fire signed Sept. 5 has eased the bloodshed in Ukraines easternmost regions, violence has continued on a smaller scale. One Ukrainian soldier has been killed and seven wounded since yesterday, the military said today via Facebook. Militants are continuing efforts to seize the airport in Donetsk, the combat zones biggest city, it said.

The conflict has killed at least 3,627 people and wounded 8,446, the United Nations estimates. Russia denies U.S., European and Ukrainian allegations that its supplying arms to the rebels and has deployed troops, tanks and artillery in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said yesterday during a visit to Warsaw that the alliance is concerned about cease-fire violations and that he hopes Russia will use its influence to ensure the truce holds.

Ukraine blames cease-fire violations on rogue elements among the rebels. The separatists are strictly adhering to the truce and only open fire when fired upon, the self-proclaimed Donetsk Peoples Republic said on its website.

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U.S. Will Help Ukraine Plan for Heating as Fighting Continues

The Ukraine crisis does not lead us back into the Cold War. Rather, it moves us forward into a clear-cut new constellation, defined by different notions of politics and different concepts of state-society relations.

The Cold War was the product of two antagonistic totalitarian ideologies, radicalized by Nazi Germany into a war of annihilation. It ended with the destruction of much of Europe and the occupation and division of Germany.

The surviving totalitarian ideology held hostage countries in Central and Eastern Europe that were forced to join the Soviet Union until its breakup in 1990.

The constellation today is defined by a neo-imperial Russia. Putins Russia considers force the continuation of politics by other means. It considers the rule of law and effective democratic participation as useless ways of weakening state centralism. And finally in Putins Russia, coercion, lies and intimidation are legitimate instruments to exercise state power over its own citizens.

The Ukraine crisis does not include the danger of falling back into the logic of the Cold War. It does, however, include the danger of missing the point about what this new conflict is essentially about.

It is about subtle and overt actions against the Atlantic notion of an open society, of freedom, self-determination and liberty. Instead, it is cast in the language and behavior of geopolitical expansion and of spheres of influence.

The Ukrainian people are torn between their tradition largely Soviet-influenced and their hopes for the future. For the majority, these hopes are linked to joining the West, especially the European Union.

The most important thing the West can do at this point in history is to support the right of self-determination of those parts of Ukraine that still fall under the sovereignty of the government in Kiev.

Therefore, the elections to the new parliament in Ukraine in a few weeks are essential. They will hardly pass without Russia trying to influence them by means of subtle and overt coercion, intimidation and fraud.

The West must be prepared for this. And it must support all those social forces that try to move Ukraine toward an open, pluralistic and corruption-free society aimed at anchoring itself in the Atlantic space.

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Ukraine: Survival as a Human Right

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