KYIV, Feb 14 - Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman said Ukraine is still dependent on external financial support for economic growth.

"We are spending UAH 130 billion on external debt servicing. We cannot independently develop the economy without external financial support," he said, presenting the results of the Cabinet of Ministers' work for 2017 at a government session.

KYIV, Feb 15 – A member of Ryanair board Juliusz Komorek confirmed plans earlier announced by Ukrainian Infrastructure Minister Volodymyr Omelyan to launch flights from Ukraine in autumn 2018.

KYIV, Feb 15 – Strong hard currency earnings by grain exporters and steelmakers as well as foreign investors buying Treasury bills helped boost local currency, the hryvnia, in February, the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) said Thursday.

KYIV, Feb. 15 - Ukraine will next week hold the first meeting with seven European energy companies seeking to win the right to manage the country’s natural gas pipelines, an official said Thursday.

KIEV, Feb. 15 – The initiative of Ukrzaliznytsia to increase the cargo transportation tariffs by rail in 2017 by 25% is unreasonable now, the tariffs should be increased no earlier than summer and the percentage by which they will be increased should be set much lower, said an MP.

KIEV, Feb. 15 - Facing a lack of iron ore supplied by Ukrainian mining companies, Alchevsk Steel Works (Luhansk region), under control of Industrial Union of Donbas (ISD), has halted smelting cast iron.

"We stopped operations due to blocking of railways and a lack of iron ore supplied from Metinvest's mining enterprises," the enterprise told Interfax-Ukraine on Tuesday.

KIEV. Feb 13 – Nine banks out of 35 largest Ukrainian banks have finished the additional capitalization programs and restructuring plans after stress tests conducted as of February 1, 2017 and 11 initially did not require additional capitalization, the National Bank of Ukraine reported on Monday.

KIEV, Feb. 14 – Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman denies accusations that the tariff for electricity in Ukraine is calculated on the basis of existing coal prices at the Rotterdam port, stressing that today the coal price in the tariff is 41.2% less than the price in Rotterdam.

MOSCOW, Feb. 14 - Gazprom expects a decision to be made by the Stockholm arbitration court on Naftogaz's gas debt by the end of April.

Earlier a decision was expected to be made by the end of March.

KIEV, Feb. 15 – The shadow economy in Ukraine in January-September 2016 totaled 35% of GDP, which is 5 percentage points less than a year ago, the Economic Development and Trade Ministry reported.