The existence of the public relations in Ukraine is the topic of hot discussion. Some argue that PR does not exist in Ukraine; others allege that it does exist and has its own schools, principles, theories and "national peculiarities". It's clear that the PR market has not been formed yet and theory is at the very first stage of its appearance that has also been delayed for too long. There are several reasons that hinder the development of PR in Ukraine, namely the low market potential brought about the cut in resources earmarked for the marketing purposes; theory has nothing to do with the practice, and advertising and PR projects have almost no results.

Ukraine has the lowest advertising cost per person in Eastern Europe. Foreign companies and joint ventures account for the 90% of the advertising ran in the country. They seem to be capable of stimulating the PR development. After all, private sector fostered the PR's emergence and progress. Eventually it entered the realm of politics, state institutions and non-governmental organizations. The difference of the Ukrainian case stems from the fact the politicians were the first to apply the PR technologies. It determined its further development to the large extent.

The quality and effectiveness of the political advertising leaves much too be desired. Publicity and press-mediation are probably the only technologies employed. The others, like sociological research, media planning, and strategical communication planning are rarely applied.

The development of the Ukrainian PR theory has some distinctive features. Most of the textbooks on PR are just plain translations of the western authors or even worth, the copies of the Russian textbooks. The textbooks primarily contain several western PR principles that have not been tested here. In most cases the authors of these books failed to run even one successful PR campaign. So, what are we facing? The western technologies slow down the development of the national PR, and domestic tools don't work at all.

By analyzing the aforementioned and considering the PR prospects in Ukraine we hope for a certain movement forward. But "certain" does not mean "adequate". The experts foresee the Ukrainian PR progress to be outlined by the Russian experience. Though it is expected that PR will cover the private sector but its major portion will still remain in politics.

Internet is another area where PR tools can be of great use. Today, Ukraine has over 400 thousand sites and over 1,5 million of Internet users. The numbers are increasing rapidly. It is now possible to reach the target audience and maintain its interest for a while at a reasonable cost. There are very few professionally created Internet projects that could carry out the PR functions. The PR's involvement into the area is quite recent but we can now say that it will turn out to be the most effective in the long run.