KIEV, Aug. 27 - The Foreign Ministry believes that before making a decision on the sending of humanitarian aid from Russia it is necessary to hold consultations with the participation of the International Committee of the Red Cross, the trilateral contact group and the OSCE.

SIMFEROPOL, Aug. 27 – Mejlis, the representative body of the Crimean Tatar people, has said that the current Crimean authorities continue to violate human rights and the rights of the Crimean Tatars on a large scale.

BRUSSELS, Aug. 28 – The Ukrainian authorities are exerting every effort to make possible the signing of the Association Agreement with the European Union this autumn at the Eastern Partnership Summit in Vilnius, National Security and Defense Council Secretary Andriy Kliuyev said in Brussels on Tuesday after a meeting with European Commissioner for Enlargement and European Neighborhood Policy Stefan Fule.

BRUSSELS, Aug. 28 – Any pressure on Ukraine related to its desire to sign the Association Agreement with the European Union is unacceptable, EU Commissioner for Enlargement and European Neighborhood Policy Stefan Fule said during talks with National Security and Defense Council Secretary Andriy Kliuyev in Brussels.

KIEV, Aug. 28 – Ukraine will not drop its plans to sign free trade and political association agreements with the European Union despite Russia’s threats to impose trade restrictions, Prime Minister Mykola Azarov said Wednesday.

KIEV, Aug. 28 – International observers at the upcoming parliamentary elections in Ukraine will have an opportunity to make sure that the election process will be held strictly according to the law and European standards, said Ivan Popesku, a member of the ruling Regions Party.

STRASBOURG, Aug. 28 - Lawyers for Ukraine’s jailed opposition leader, Yulia Tymoshenko, appealed to Europe’s human rights court Tuesday as her only hope for a fair hearing, accusing the government of rigging the criminal case against her.

KIEV, Aug. 28 – The government’s failure to resume borrowing from the International Monetary Fund may put Ukraine in default early next year when the country has to repay massive debt, former President Viktor Yushchenko said Tuesday.

KIEV, Aug. 23 – The next parliamentary election in October 2012 should be held under a new law, said President Viktor Yanukovych.

"Wide-ranging and systematic improvement of election legislation is one of the most important reform areas in Ukraine. A short-term target of this process is holding the parliamentary election in October 2012 under a new law that would eliminate the flaws of the current proportional parliamentary election system," Yanukovych said during a meeting to mark the Independence Day of Ukraine in Kiev on Tuesday.

KIEV, Aug. 25 – Ukraine's future belongs in Europe, President Viktor Yanukovych said.

"In this climate of global uncertainty and competing geostrategic interests, the connections between Europe and Ukraine are all the more important. Ukraine needs Europe. Just as important, Europe cannot afford to leave Ukraine behind," Yanukovych wrote in an article for The Wall Street Journal published on the newspaper's Web site.