The Ukrainian anti-protest laws were a group of ten laws restricting freedom of speech and freedom of assembly passed by the Verkhovna Rada on January 16, 2014 and signed into law by President Viktor Yanukovych the following day, amid massive anti-government protests known as “Euromaidan” that started in November. The laws were collectively referred to as the "laws on dictatorship", by Euromaidan activists, non-governmental organizations, scholars, and the Ukrainian media.

Viktor Fedorovych Yanukovych is a former Ukrainian politician, who was the fourth president of Ukraine from 2010 to 2014. He also served as the prime minister of Ukraine several times between 2002 and 2007 and was a member of the Verkhovna Rada from 2006 to 2010. A member of the pro-Russian Party of Regions, Yanukovych was removed from the presidency via revolution in 2014, at the time neighboring Russia started to annex Ukrainian Crimea and started Russo-Ukrainian War. Since then, he has lived in exile in Russia.