RIGA, Jan. 8 - The European Union proposed on Thursday offering an additional 1.8 billion euros ($2.1 billion) to help save Ukraine from bankruptcy as Kiev assured Germany it had credible plans to modernize, Reuters reported.

BERLIN, Jan. 10 - German Chancellor Angela Merkel told Russian President Vladimir Putin on the phone on Saturday that a four-way summit to discuss the situation in eastern Ukraine would not take place until there was real progress on the Minsk peace plan, Reuters reported.

BRUSSELS, Jan. 8 – The European Commission said it is ready to provide further assistance to Ukraine.

"Today the Commission has proposed new macro-financial assistance (MFA) to Ukraine, of up to EUR 1.8 billion in medium-term loans," the EC said in a statement.

KIEV, Jan. 12 - President Petro Poroshenko will meet with Polish Prime Minister Ewa Kopacz during her visit to Ukraine on January 19.

He arranged the meeting during a telephone conversation with Kopacz on Friday, the presidential press service reported.

MOSCOW, Jan. 12 – The impact of Western sanctions on the Russian economy was stronger that anybody could have expected, financier George Soros has written in an article "A New Policy to Rescue Ukraine" published in The New York Review of Books.

KIEV, Jan. 12 - President Petro Poroshenko has said he hopes that the decision on the creation of a pan-European Russian-language channel as a source of objective information could be made at the Riga summit in May 2015.

TALLINN, Jan. 12 - European Council President Donald Tusk and Estonian Prime Minister Taavi Roivas said on January 9 during a meeting in Tallinn that sanctions against Russia should continue.

MOSCOW, Jan 12 - The European Union will consider lifting sanctions on Russia over the Ukraine crisis only if there is "real progress" in implementing a four-month-old ceasefire deal, Latvia's foreign minister said on Monday, Reuters reported.

KIEV, Jan. 12 - Ukraine's foreign currency reserves were down to just over $7.5 billion last year, the lowest level for 10 years and barely enough to cover five weeks of imports, pressured by external debt repayments including to the IMF and to Russia for gas, Reuters reported.

KIEV, Jan. 12 - Interpol announced it has put ousted Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych and two members of his former government on the international wanted list at the behest of Ukraine.