BUDAPEST, Dec. 4 - Hungary’s foreign minister on Wednesday said Budapest would block Ukraine’s membership in NATO until Kyiv restored the rights that ethnic Hungarians had before a language law curbed minorities’ access to education in their mother tongues, Reuters reported.

KYIV, Nov 30 – President Petro Poroshenko said the European Commission (EC) has made a favorable decision on the provision of a first tranche of the fourth macrofinancial assistance of the European Union (EU) to Ukraine in the amount of EUR 500 million and thanked the European Commission for its decision.

BRUSSELS, Dec 3 - The U.S. and its NATO allies on Monday have strongly urged Russia to free the Ukrainian vessels and the crews captured last week in the Kerch Strait.

KYIV, Dec 3 - Ukraine's president on Monday announced a partial call-up of reservists for training amid tensions with Russia, saying the country needs to beef up its defenses to counter the threat of a Russian invasion.

KYIV, Dec 4 — Half of Ukrainians are not ready to get involved in the governance of their towns, with one-third of them being ready, a poll conducted by the sociological service of the Razumkov Center has revealed.

BRUSSELS, Dec 4 - Ukraine on Tuesday pressed NATO to come up with a "comprehensive answer" to Russian aggression in the Black Sea, as the alliance treads carefully for fear of escalating tensions further, AFP reported.

BRUSSELS, Dec. 2 - NATO trust funds that have been set up to help Ukraine conduct defense reform began to work on Tuesday, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said.

"Today, these four trust funds are up and running," he said at a press conference in Brussels on Tuesday.

KIEV, Dec. 4 – The newly appointed ministers of economic and financial ministries of the government promise not to delay the implementation of required reforms and resume economic growth in Ukraine by 2016.

BASEL, Dec. 4 - U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said on Thursday Russia had pitched itself into isolation through its own actions in Ukraine and could rebuild international credibility only by ending its support for pro-Russian separatists, Reuters reported.

KIEV, Dec. 4 - Ukraine's new energy minister pleaded with industrial and domestic consumers to use less electricity as hard frosts led to a sharp drop in gas stocks and low coal stockpiles, making more blackouts likely, Reuters reported.