KIEV, Sept. 30 - The European Union assured Ukraine Thursday the country will continue to be the key transit route for Russian natural gas supplies to Europe, and agreed to disburse $308 million to upgrade its gas pipeline system.

WARSAW, Sept. 30 - European Union leaders expressed concern Friday with the criminal trials of opposition politicians in Belarus and Ukraine, and warned that international grants and loans were at stake if Belarus didn’t release political prisoners immediately.

WARSAW, Sept. 29 - Poland has supported and will continue to support the European aspirations of Ukraine, Polish President Bronislaw Komorowski has said after a meeting with his Ukrainian counterpart Viktor Yanukovych.

WARSAW, Sept. 29 – The signing of an agreement on the creation of a free trade area between Ukraine and the European Union will help improve the level of the Ukrainian economy, President Viktor Yanukovych said.

MOSCOW, Oct. 2 – Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said Thursday it was “funny and comical” that his Ukrainian counterpart, Yulia Tymoshenko, had been recently questioned by prosecutors investigating the poisoning of Viktor Yushchenko.

KIEV, Oct. 2 – Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko’s group on Thursday joined forces with Our Ukraine-People’s Self-defense in a vote canceling controversial bills designed to weaken presidential power and which caused the collapse of the coalition last month.

KIEV, Oct. 2 – The new Ukrainian parliament could oblige the National Bank of Ukraine to un-peg the hryvnia from the dollar and transfer to a more free exchange rate, according to former Economy Minister of Ukraine Serhiy Terekhin, who is 24th on the election list of the Yulia Tymoshenko’s BYT bloc.

KIEV, Oct. 2 – The Socialist Party’s showing fell rapidly over the past 24 hours after President Viktor Yushchenko ordered the security service to take extra steps preventing vote manipulation and fraud.

KIEV, Oct. 2 – Yulia Tymoshenko, who is likely to form the next government, said Tuesday her pro-Western coalition may expand to include the centrist group of former Parliamentary Speaker Volodymyr Lytvyn.

KIEV, Oct. 2 – Less than two days after a snap parliamentary election made likely a shift away from the country’s pro-Russian government, Russian gas giant Gazprom on Tuesday unexpectedly threatened to cut off natural gas supplies to Ukraine unless the country pays off a $1.3 billion debt for gas supplies within the next 30 days.