KIEV, March 14 - Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman began his official visit to Turkey on Tuesday, the Ukrainian cabinet's secretariat said.

KIEV, March 13 – Oleksandr Lysak, a lawyer for suspended State Fiscal Service chief Roman Nasirov, has said he and his colleagues will appeal to the European Court for Human Rights (ECHR) about the unlawful arrest of their client.

KIEV, March 14 – President Viktor Yanukovych on Thursday defended a recent court ruling stripping an opposition lawmaker of his parliamentary seat, but admitted the move will have negative impact on relations with the European Union.

KIEV, March 14 – Parliament is planning to legally define the specifics of the privatization of the state-run property of coalmines.

A total of 241 out of 422 lawmakers registered in the session hall supported the draft law at first reading.

KIEV, March 14 – The Ukrainian government, facing a deadlock with the International Monetary Fund over resumption of its $15.5 billion loan program, has hired a U.S. lobbyist firm to try to get the money, a newspaper reported Wednesday.

KHARKIV, March 12 – Naftogaz Ukrayiny expects that when the 2010/2011 heating season comes to an end (May 2011), the tariffs for gas for households will grow by 26%, according to Naftogaz Chairman Yevhen Bakulin.

KIEV, March 14 – Former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, leader of the largest opposition party in Ukraine, on Monday asked prosecutors for permission to visit Brussels this month and a democracy forum in Lithuania in June.

Tymoshenko, who must stay in Kiev because she is under investigation for alleged abuse of power when she was the prime minister in 2009, has been already twice denied the permission earlier this year.

KIEV, March 14 – Ukraine postponed for at least a week a raise of its national retirement age amid lack of political agreement among lawmakers, Parliamentary Speaker Volodymyr Lytvyn said Monday.

KIEV, March 12 – Fedir Yaroshenko at the post of Finance Minister would firmly realize ideas of new premier Mykola Azarov, although it is unlikely that he would settle budget problems without printing hryvnias, according to Ukrainian bankers polled by Interfax-Ukraine.

KIEV, March 12 – Ukrainian Prosecutor General Oleksandr Medvedko has called on the law-enforcement and oversight bodies to actively investigate the lawfulness of the use of budget funds by the cabinet headed by former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko.