KIEV, Dec. 11 – Ukraine has signed the first of a set of large-scale contracts to supply arms worth over $550 million to Iraq, said Stepan Havrysh, the first deputy of the National Security and Defense Council secretary.

KIEV, Dec. 14 – The government will continue to press for a rise in gas prices for the population, bolster the independence of the National Bank of Ukraine and cancel the financing of the Euro 2012 European Football Championship using an excess of income over the expenditure of the NBU, a source in the cabinet told Interfax-Ukraine.

KIEV, Dec. 14 - Ukraine said Monday it launched an investigation into the Ilyushin-76 aircraft that was impounded Saturday in Thailand for carrying arms from North Korea to an as yet unknown destination.

KIEV, Dec. 11 - Ukrainian steel production could plummet 45.4% year-on-year in January to 1.99 million tons, the Dnipropetrovsk-based Metalurhprom association told Interfax.

KIEV, Dec. 11 – Eight of the 12 space launches planned for 2008 with the use of launch vehicles produced by Ukraine were carried out this year, Interfax-Ukraine has learned from the Dnipropetrovsk-based Pivdenne Design Bureau spokesman Yuriy Moshnenko.

KIEV, Dec. 11 - Sweden's SKF, a leading global supplier of bearings, plans to dismiss around 2,500 employees globally, including in Ukraine.

According to a company report issued on Wednesday, apart from Ukraine, where the group owns OJSC SKF Ukraine (former Lutsk Bearing Plant), the reduction of the workforce will affect the United States, France, Italy, Brazil and Argentina, mainly within the Automotive Division.

ASTANA, Dec. 14 - Ukrainian-Kazakh trade will reach $1.5 billion by the end of 2006, Kazakh Prime Minister Danial Akhmetov told a briefing after talks with his Ukrainian counterpart Viktor Yanukovych in Astana on Thursday.

KIEV, Dec. 13 ??“ The government will have to reduce by half the suggested 2005 budget deficit before Parliament approves the draft, Parliament budget committee Chairman Petro Poroshenko said Monday.

KIEV, Dec. 14 ??“ Ukraine may increase its sugar beet harvest 58% by 2010 to 28.5 million, according to a state complex program on stabilization and development of the sugar beet sector by 2010.

KIEV, Dec. 13 ??“ Volodymyr Stelmakh, the conservative veteran former governor of the National Bank of Ukraine, was summoned back to the central bank??™s top leadership position Monday amid signs the hryvnia is under severe pressure to depreciate.