KIEV, April 7 - President Viktor Yanukovych, under pressure from the European Union and the United States, on Sunday pardoned Yuriy Lutsenko, Ukraine’s second-most-prominent political prisoner, citing the policy of “decriminalization” and “humanization” of legislation.

PAVLOHRAD, April 5 – President Viktor Yanukovych said he hopes that the disposal of solid rocket fuel at Pavlohrad Chemical Plant in Dnipropetrovsk region will be finished by the end of 2014.

KIEV, April 5 – The Ukrainian government has proposed a return to the lower rates of excise duties on petroleum products that were in effect in the country before January 1, 2011.

KIEV, April 7 – Energy security is a common strategic interest of Ukraine, the European Union and Russia, President Viktor Yanukovych will say in his annual address to Parliament.

"The common strategic interest of Ukraine, the European Union and Russia is energy security.

MOSCOW, April 6 - The operator company's indecision and slowness – not an earthquake or a tsunami - caused the disaster at the Fukushima nuclear power plant to become a catastrophe, Oleksandr Kovalenko, ex-deputy head of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, told Interfax.

KIEV, April 7 – Russia suggested on Thursday that Ukraine could save up to $8 billion annually by rejecting a free trade agreement with the European Union and joining a Moscow-led economic alliance instead.

KIEV, April 7 – The government, apparently yielding to pressure from the International Monetary Fund, has agreed to narrow Ukraine’s 2010 budget deficit dramatically in a bid to win resumption of lending next month.

ASTANA, April 7 - Ukraine will resume transit of crude oil from Kazakhstan via its oil pipelines to the European Union, President Viktor Yanukovych said Wednesday after a meeting with his Kazakh counterpart, Nursultan Nazarbayev.

KIEV, April 7 – First Deputy Prime Minister Andriy Kliuyev said Wednesday the Constitutional Court has approved the ruling that deems the governing coalition – and the government – as created in line with the constitution.

MOSCOW, April 6 – Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov is expected to visit Ukraine on April 9-10, according to Ukraine's Foreign Ministry.

During his visit, Lavrov will take part in a meeting of the subcommittee on international cooperation of the Russian-Ukrainian interstate commission. The Ukrainian part of the subcommittee will be chaired by Ukrainian Foreign Minister Kostiantyn Hryschenko, Russian Foreign Ministry's spokesman Andriy Nesterenko said.