KIEV, Dec. 24 – NATO has extended the contract for the lease of the Ukrainian-Russian An-124-100 Ruslan heavy transport aircraft until December 31, 2014.

KIEV, Dec. 21 - Dmytro Firtash's Group DF plans to invest about $2.5 billion in its titanium business over the next seven years, the group said in a statement.

KIEV, Dec. 23 – Moody's Investors Service has confirmed First Ukrainian International Bank's (FUIB) long-term local currency deposit and foreign currency senior unsecured debt ratings of B2, as well as its National Scale Rating (NSR) of A3.ua.

KIEV, Dec. 23 – The planned state financing of a program on the creation and completion of tests of the An-70 military cargo plane in 2010 is estimated at around UAH 190 million, the Defense Ministry reported.

KIEV, Dec. 24 - The share of bad credits in the total amount of loans extended by Ukrainian banks in November 2009 grew by 0.7 percentage points, to 8.8% by December 1, 2009, the National Bank of Ukraine reported.

KIEV, Dec. 24 - Head of the National Bank of Ukraine's advisory group Valeriy Lytvytsky's view is that the balance of payments deficit will end up at a little over $14 billion for 2009, up from $3.209 billion for 2008.

KIEV, Dec. 23 - Ukraine's debt for gas will equal $3.2 billion on Jan. 1, 2009, Dmytro Firtash, co-owner of Switzerland-registered gas trader RosUkrEnergo, said in an interview with Ukraine's Inter television.

KIEV, Dec. 21 -- The average level of transparency among Ukraine's largest corporations is low, at 23.9%, Standard & Poor's Governance Services says in its Transparency and Disclosure Survey of the 36 largest Ukrainian companies.

KIEV, Dec. 21 - The first launch of a Tsyklon-4 rocket from the Alcantara space center in Brazil has been scheduled for July 2010, Alcantara-Tsyklon-Space joint-venture director general Oleksandr Serdiuk told Interfax-Ukraine.

KIEV, Dec. 21 - Germany's NUKEM Technologies GmbH has completed the construction of a storage facility for solid radioactive waste from the Chornobyl Nuclear Power Plant located on the territory of the Vector complex, the state-run Chornobyl NPP Company said on Friday.