KIEV, Dec. 4 – Parliament, which delayed the 2012 budget draft for weeks to give the government time for natural gas talks with Russia, will approve the draft before the end of December, Parliamentary Speaker Volodymyr Lytvyn said Saturday.

KIEV, Dec. 4 – Ukraine’s two most popular opposition groups on Sunday joined forces in leading a massive protest rally in Kiev demanding the resignation of President Viktor Yanukovych and pledging cooperation at the upcoming parliamentary election.

BRUSSELS, Dec. 1 – The European Union could help Ukraine in negotiating the conditions of Russian gas shipments to bring them in compliance with EU trade standards, a European Parliament draft resolution suggests.

KIEV, Dec. 2 – Trade between Ukraine and Russia will top $36 billion in 2008, said Andriy Honcharuk, deputy head of the presidential secretariat.

He said at a briefing in Kiev on Tuesday that over the first nine months of 2008, the trade between the two countries had already reached the level of 2007, totaling over $30 billion.

MOSCOW, Dec. 4 - If Ukraine fails to honor its obligations on transiting natural gas from Russia to Western Europe, Russia will have to cut gas supply to Ukraine itself, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said during a televised question and answer session on Thursday.

KIEV, Dec. 4 – The National Bank of Ukraine intends to defend the forex rate at UAH7.4-7.5 per U.S. dollar, the head of the group of advisors to the NBU Governor, Valeriy Lytvytsky said.

KIEV, Dec. 4 – Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, at a press conference Thursday, refused to take questions about her talks with the opposition Regions Party over creation of a coalition that would challenge President Viktor Yushchenko.

KIEV, Dec. 4 – President Viktor Yushchenko warned Thursday he would not let political groups approve a constitutional amendment that allows lawmakers to elect the next president in Parliament, calling the amendment a “huge threat” to democracy.

SIMFEROPOL, Nov. 30 - According to preliminary estimates, the damage from the oil spill from the Russian Volganeft-139 tanker in the Kerch Strait is worth around $898 million.

KIEV, Dec. 3 - President Viktor Yushchenko on Monday met Yuriy Boyko, the energy and fuel minister and Ukraine's chief negotiator with Russia on natural gas supplies and prices to be charged in 2008.