KIEV, April 3 - Russia has officially inquired about Ukraine’s growing imports of natural gas from Europe, prompting an official reply from Kiev, Energy and Coal Industry Minister Eduard Stavytskiy said Wednesday.

KIEV, April 3 – Rinat Akhmetov, Ukraine's wealthiest businessman, is among the people who have pulled their money from troubled Laiki Bank in Cyprus avoiding a "haircut" on their uninsured deposits, The Financial Times reported Wednesday.

KIEV, April 3 - Activ Solar completed construction of a new 31.55-MW solar photovoltaic (PV) power plant near the village of Mityaevo in Crimea, the company said Tuesday.

“This is the fourth large-scale PV project completed by Activ Solar in Crimea, where we have installed over 215 MW to date,” Activ Solar CEO Kaveh Ertefai said in a statement. “A significant portion of Crimea’s power generation is now produced by solar energy.”

KIEV, April 3 – The State Savings Bank of Ukraine (Oschadbank), which is the government's agent for paying defaulted deposits of Soviet-era depositors, is planning to put compensation funds on local three-year payment cards, Oschadbank Board Chairman Serhiy Podrezov has said.

KIEV, April 3 - Ukraine may allow imports of one million metric tons of crude oil without imposing duties and taxes to boost production of gasoline at domestic oil refineries, Prime Minister Mykola Azarov said Tuesday.

KIEV, April 2 - Black Iron mining company announced it will ask Pivdenny Mining (Southern Mining), a neighboring iron ore mine, to relocate its old mine service garage and waste dumps, which are now located on a portion of the Shymanivske property.

KIEV, April 2 - The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and Eco-Optima (Lviv) are planning in April to sign a loan agreement on the construction of a wind power plant with a capacity of 12.5 MW in Starosambir district (Lviv region), Manager of the EBRD Energy Efficiency and Climate Change Project Olena Borysova has told Interfax-Ukraine.

KIEV, April 3 – Ukraine is ready to send a second batch of 62 BTR-4 armored personnel carriers to Iraq in April under a contract for military hardware shipments.

KIEV, April 3 – The ratio of remittances to Ukraine by Ukrainians working abroad to Ukraine's GDP in 2011 grew by 0.1 percentage notches compared to 2010, to 4.3%, the National Bank of Ukraine reported.

KIEV, March 31 – The Ukrainian Grain Association opposes the prolongation of grain export quotas until June 30, 2011 and has said that Ukraine should sell around four million tons of end-stock grain by the end of the current marketing year, according to UGA President Volodymyr Klymenko.