KIEV, Feb. 4 – First deputy Petro Poroshenko Bloc faction chief Ihor Kononenko said that he will leave this post for the duration of the investigation into the accusations made by Economic Development and Trade Minister Aivaras Abromavicius and has invited Abromavicius to pass a lie-detector test regarding accusations together with him.

KIEV, Feb. 5 - Ukraine needs a new technocratic government led by the present finance minister to have any hope of pushing through long-promised reforms, the outgoing economy minister told Reuters on Friday, two days after his shock resignation.

KIEV, Feb. 5 – Parliament has introduced legislative amendments which ban films and TV series produced by individuals and legal entities of the Russian Federation after January 1, 2014.

KIEV, Feb. 5 – U.S. President Barack Obama is studying various options for providing assistance to Ukraine, including defensive weapons, U.S. State Department John Kerry said.

KIEV, Feb. 5 - The U.S. government intends to provide $16.4 million in new humanitarian assistance to help Ukrainians affected by the violence in Donbas.

KIEV, Feb. 5 – Ukraine and the International Monetary Fund have agreed on the conditions of providing financial aid to the country, National Bank of Ukraine Governor Valeriya Gontareva said.

MOSCOW, Feb. 8 - Russian President Vladimir Putin said Kiev must stop its military operation in east Ukraine and cease exerting economic pressure on rebel-held regions, warning that it was on a "dead-end track fraught with ... catastrophe,” Reuters reported.

MUNICH, Feb. 8 - The leaders of Russia, Ukraine, Germany and France agreed to meet in Belarus on Wednesday to try to broker a peace deal for Ukraine amid escalating violence there and signs of cracks in the transatlantic consensus on confronting Vladimir Putin, Reuters reported.

KIEV, Feb. 8 – The leader of a pro-government group in Parliament paid $450,000 in cash to an opposition lawmaker for switching sides and joining a majority supporting President Viktor Yanukovych, the lawmaker said Wednesday.

KIEV, Feb. 8 – President Viktor Yanukovych on Wednesday replaced Mykhaylo Yezhel with Dmytro Salamatin as Ukraine’s defense minister, strengthening his personal control over military forces.