KYIV, Dec 11 – President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Wednesday signed Ukraine’s 2020 budget bill that sets budget deficit at a manageable 2.09% of the gross domestic product that should encourage economic growth.

KYIV, Dec 10 – Ukrainians in 2019 were most interested in the Game of Thrones season 8, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and Russian signer and TV anchorperson Yulia Nachalova, who died in March 2019, according to the top Google searches in 2019.

BRUSSELS, Dec. 11 - European Union leaders will extend on Thursday sanctions against Russia over its annexation of Crimea and Moscow’s involvement in the conflict in eastern Ukraine, a senior EU official said on Wednesday.

KYIV, Dec 11 — Yuliya Tymoshenko, leader of the Batkivschyna party, has been taking the lead in the presidential ratings, with showman Volodymyr Zelensky coming second and the incumbent President Petro Poroshenko coming third, a poll conducted by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology has shown.

WASHINGTON, Dec 11 - Russia is seeking to boost its power in Europe and grip over Ukraine with the proposed Nord Stream 2 natural gas pipeline, the top U.S. energy diplomat said on Monday, in a step-up of Washington's rhetoric against the pipeline, Reuters reported.

KYIV, Dec 10 – Over 40% of Ukrainians are ready to bear material constraints for the sake of own personal freedom and guarantee of observation of all civil rights, while 23% are convinced that address to mass media is the effective way to protect human rights, according to a poll conducted by the Human Rights Information Center and the Ilko Kucheriv Democratic Initiatives Foundation.

WASHINGTON, Dec. 9 - The International Monetary Fund has confirmed the low probability of issuing the fourth tranche under the EFF program to Ukraine by the end of this year. "It is probably unlikely," IMF spokesman Gerry Rice said during a regular briefing in Washington.

KIEV, Dec. 9 – In a sign that one of the Ukrainian government's key foreign policy initiatives may be in jeopardy, Prime Minister Volodymyr Grosman denied at a Parliament session that Kiev supported admitting a quota of refugees in exchange for Ukrainians receiving the long-sought right to travel to European Union countries without applying for visas.

BRUSSELS, Dec. 11 – Maja Kocijancic, spokesperson of EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini, told Interfax-Ukraine on Wednesday that a working group of the EU Council has not finished forming proposals on the expansion of sanctions regarding annexed Crimea.

KIEV, Dec. 11 - Ukraine called on Russia on Thursday to release a Ukrainian military pilot from a Moscow psychiatric clinic where she is being held over accusations of involvement in the deaths of two Russian journalists, Reuters reported.