VIENNA, June 8 - Ukraine will move to diversify its natural gas supplies to reduce dependence on Russian gas imports, Prime Minister Mykola Azarov said Wednesday, a day after he had failed to persuade Moscow to cut prices.

KIEV, June 7 – Former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko has stressed the importance of preserving the strategic partnership between Ukraine and the United States, regardless of change of government in Ukraine.

ISTANBUL, June 8 - Ukraine is interested in acquiring oil and gas producing assets in Russia in exchange for letting Russian energy companies drill offshore the Black Sea, President Viktor Yanukovych said Tuesday.

KIEV, June 8 – Ukraine’s two independent television stations lost dozens of broadcasting frequencies following a Tuesday court ruling on a lawsuit from a rival media company owned by the chief of the SBU security service.

MOSCOW, June 7 - Russia's Severstal denied Ukrainian press reports that it was involved in the acquisition of the Zaporizhstal steel mill, Severstal told Interfax.

Ukraine's Today newspaper reported Monday that Ukrainian First Deputy Prime Minister Andrei Kliuyev had said Severstal was the buyer of the Ukrainian steel mill.

KIEV, June 4 – Economists of Ukrainian investment companies polled by Interfax-Ukraine have said that it is unlikely that the hryvnia will weaken in the future and forecast that the average annual hryvnia exchange rate will be in the UAH 8-8.22/$1 range.

KIEV, June 5 – The National Security and Defense Council passed a decision on Friday about the need to step up the diversification of supplies and routes of gas deliveries to Ukraine, NSDC First Deputy Secretary Stepan Havrysh said.

"The draft decision says that the diversification of sources, supplies and routes of gas shipments from the Caspian and Central Asian states should be guaranteed," he told reporters after the meeting.

KIEV, June 8 – Presidential Envoy on International Energy Issues Bohdan Sokolovsky has expressed fears that Russia's Gazprom could impose fines on Naftogaz Ukrayiny for not buying the full volume of gas this year before the presidential elections in Ukraine.

KIEV, June 8 - Ukraine resorted to a complicated domestic transaction involving money printing to help Naftogaz Ukrayiny pay for Russian natural gas imports in May, the office of President Viktor Yushchenko announced Friday.

KIEV, June 8 – Constitutional talks between Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko and the opposition Regions Party collapsed on Sunday after Regions leader Viktor Yanukovych pulled out, rejecting the idea of presidential election in Parliament.