KIEV, Nov. 22 – The Interior Ministry announced plans to introduce electronic passports with biometric data for Ukrainians traveling abroad in the second half of 2011.

KIEV, Nov. 19 – The introduction of the Tax Code could make loans in Ukraine more expensive and reduce small- and medium-size businesses in the country, according to Stanyslav Arzhevitin, the first deputy head of the parliamentary committee on finance and banking.

LISBON, Nov. 19 – The United States and the European Union have discussed energy issues with respect to Ukraine and confirmed their support for the Ukrainian leadership on four priorities.

ZAPORIZHIA, Nov. 22 – Marine archeologists of the Khortytsia National Reserve in Zaporizhia have raised an ancient Cossack warship, a Cossack oak vessel, which had been lying beneath the waters of the reserve for some three centuries.

SIMFEROPOL, Nov. 19 – The Supreme Council of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea has charged the government of Crimea with considering and determining the best options of the use of Lake Donuzlav (Western Crimea) and the nearby territory, as well as presenting relevant proposals at the Crimean parliament.

KIEV, Nov. 20 – Canada's Kulczyk Oil Ventures has entered into an agreement on the purchase of a 70% indirect equity interest in KUB-Gas Ltd. (Luhansk) from U.S. Gastek LLC, a private Californian company that wholly owns KUB-Gas.

KIEV, Nov. 20 – The government is damaging domestic medical equipment producers while helping foreign ones, presidential candidate Sergiy Tigipko said, commenting on a decision of the cabinet to give state guarantees for UAH 15 billion credits to purchase foreign medical equipment.

YALTA, Nov. 20 - The Ukrainian Ministry of Fuel and Energy, the Russian Energy Ministry in cooperation with Naftogaz Ukrayiny and Gazprom are to draft a new inter-governmental agreement on gas cooperation in the first half of 2010, according to a protocol signed by the Russian and Ukrainian prime ministers after a session of the bilateral committee on economic cooperation.

KIEV, Nov. 21 – Ukraine’s state railway company, UkrZaliznytsia, will seek to restructure its $550 million debt for at least three years, raising concern over the country’s ability to repay foreign debts.

KIEV, Nov. 22 - Kharkiv Electrical Engineering Plant Ukrelectromash (HELZ), a large AC induction motor manufacturer, plans in 2009 to start producing self-controlled electric inductive thrust motors, which will be supplied to western markets, the press service of the UPEC Group, which includes HELZ.