KIEV, Feb. 10 - Russia and Ukraine will simultaneously ratify a CIS free trade agreement and will reach an agreement on the Russian Black Sea Fleet's presence in Crimea in the near future, Russian Ambassador Mikhail Zurabov said.

KIEV, Feb. 13 – The McDonald's fast food restaurant located in Kiev on Vokzalna square was second among 33,000 McDonald's restaurants with the most numerous visitors in the world in 2011, accepting 2,455,280 orders, which is 7.5% or 171,881 more than in 2011, McDonald's Ukraine reported.

KIEV, Feb. 13 – Luhansk Energy Union (LEU, controlled by Konstantin Grigorishin) has won a tender for the sale of a 50% stake in regional energy supply company Vinnytsiaoblenergo.

KIEV, Feb. 13 – Group DF Chairman Dmytro Firtash is to build the largest high-tech greenhouse complex in western Ukraine, worth some $100 million, in Sinkov in Ternopil region where the businessman was born, his press service reported.

KIEV, Feb. 13 - Municipal heating companies paid only 24% of the required sum to Naftogaz Ukrayiny for gas consumed in January, Regional Development, Construction, Housing and Utilities Minister of Ukraine Anatoliy Blyzniuk, said during a telephone conference in Kiev.

SIMFEROPOL, Feb. 10 – The office of the agency for Crimea's regional development has opened in Simferopol. The agency was created under a decision of the Crimean government and is supported by the European Union and the United Nations Development Program (UNDP).

KIEV, Feb. 10 - Westinghouse has started the commercial supply of nuclear fuel to Ukraine under a contract with state company EnergoAtom, EnergoAtom President Yuriy Nedashkovsky said at a press conference in Kiev.

KIEV, Feb. 10 – The Union of Oil Market Operators of Ukraine has accused oil refineries and the Energy and Coal Industry Ministry of manipulating information in order to introduce fuel import duties.

KIEV, Feb. 8 – Ukraine's state tax service is initiating the creation of a national office for work with big business, the service reported on Tuesday.

"An important step to reform the tax system will be the creation of a single national office for work with big business, which will be conductive to boosting tax payments to the budget," the report quotes Tax Service Chief Vitaliy Zakharchenko as saying.

KIEV, Feb. 8 – Foreign Minister Kostiantyn Hryschenko is to attend the third session of the United States-Ukraine Strategic Partnership Commission, which is to be held in the middle of February, Foreign Ministry spokesman Oleksandr Dykusarov has said at a briefing.