any plans for travelling to eastern Ukraine?

I have done some of this.

The big cities: Donetsk, Lugansk, Dnipropetrovsk, Poltava, Kharkov, Zoporozhye are easily accessible with decent transport links and limited accommodation options.

Visiting villages is a different matter. If there's one bus a day and no accommodation and no restaurant this is a recipe for frustration. Information on music and dance is difficult to find from abroad or months in advance. I speak Russian; without the language I think rural Ukraine would be very difficult.

I agreee there's a lot of scope for tourism in E Ukraine, and there are a few splendid tour organisers who can act as guides. Organising such a trip as an indpendent traveller is much more challenging. If Ukraine had a better organised tourist information service this would all get a lot easier.

Now it is indeed very easy to travel to Ukraine from Europe and USA, but situation may change. Ukrainian parliament is considering the re-entry of visa regime for citizens of EU and USA. It would be very pity should they succeed, so do not waste time.

I've been in Svyatogorsk several times, it is definitely the nice place and worth visiting. But as #1 said, you should plan your trip in advance and try to learn at least the basics of Russian. If you are on your own and without the language you can easily get frustrated. Almost no one speaks English in rural areas.

leaving here as foreigner, I would say that yes, language helps but you can do your way. Villages and even cities doesn't have such a good structure of cheap accommodation, but you can handle with local people and hand signs, ukrainians are helpful and eastern will be good for the end of this year and next with new developments that are been planned (as I work in a tourism business and associations here I know about hostels and some connections).

I think the challenge is part of traveling here, it is a post-soviet country and villages are even more connected, around summer I don't see any problem to be open and not frustrated.

Regarding the visas they might do it, what I'm not so sure they will, anyway the system will be different from Russia or before, the idea is to implant a border stamp, where you pay something like 20 or 30EU, receive the stamp valid for one month and it's all fine. Nothing like invitation letters, embassy and bureaucracy, just one way the country is looking forward to collect some money... Not so nice, but doesn't ruin any plan for anybody, since Ukraine it's a really cheap country.

#3 I had some interesting conversations about this visa issue on the ski slopes in Western Ukraine last week.

There's clearly a lot of resentment at the lack of reciprocity. Ukraine's generous visa abolition has seen a further tightening in visa requirements for Ukrainians due to Schengen. Some told me they thought Ukraine should join a customs / immigration union with Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan, which would mean requiring all the LOI / registration etc that Russians require. They did grudgingly accept that Russia's tough line on this regard had brought them no closer to easier travel for Russians within the EU, and many could see a connection between increasing EU investment in Ukraine (including my bringing 25 people to ski there) and Ukraine's current liberal visa rules. However, the sense of injustics is very tangible. Travellers might worry that Yanukovich sets off on a domestic crowd-pleasing campaign that leaves nobody better off.

Meanwhile, Poland has some more promising proposals (see RIA novosti, http://en.rian.ru/world/20100222/157970088.html). Unfortunately France is campaigning to block these. It seems that Yanokoviich is being quite smart in playing off the EU against Russia. the EU really doesn't want Ukraine in a customs / immigration union with Russia and I hope Yanukovich gets some substantial concessions in Brussels in exchange for abandoning any union with Russia.