KIEV, Sept. 27 - Ukraine needs to press on with reforms, as loans alone will not help the economy out of financial crisis, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the managing director of the International Monetary Fund, said Saturday.

Ukraine, its economy deeply affected by the global financial crisis, is surviving on a $16.4 billion lifeline from the IMF.

MOSCOW, Sept. 27 - Russia may stop using missile defense radar stations in Ukraine's Mukacheve and Sevastopol, Space Forces Commander Col. Gen. Vladimir Popovkin said.

BRUSSELS, Sept. 27 - The Ukrainian customs service plans by January 2008 to launch processing of electronic declarations and electronic signatures as a part of the program to transfer to an electronic customs system in line with that of the European Union, State Customs Service chief Oleksandr Yehorov told the press in Brussels.

KIEV, Sept. 27 – President Viktor Yushchenko on Thursday ruled out a grand coalition with the Regions Party, adding he believed pro-Western parties would be able to form the government after the Sept. 30 snap vote.

KIEV, Sept. 26 - Ukraine needs a gas transportation consortium for regulating the gas market, Russian Ambassador to Ukraine Viktor Chernomyrdin said in an interview with the journal Narodny Deputat forwarded to Interfax by the Russian embassy in Kiev.

KIEV, Sept. 27 ??“ Ukraine??™s economy became less competitive over the past 12 months due to problems with business ownership rights and persistent corruption, according to a survey released by the World Economic Forum.

KIEV, Sept. 27 - The mass murder on the outskirts of Kiev 65 years ago Friday has made the name Babiy Yar infamous and has come to be seen as foreshadowing the gas chambers and crematoria of the Final Solution.

KIEV, Sept. 27 - Ukraine will suggest Russia resume building a new natural gas pipeline across Ukraine to increase Russian gas shipments to Europe, Energy and Fuel Minister Ivan Plachkov said Tuesday.

KIEV, Sept. 27 - Prime Minister Yuriy Yekhanurov on Tuesday called on Naftogaz Ukrayiny, the national oil and gas company, to accelerate shipments of goods to Turkmenistan to clear debts for earlier natural gas deliveries.

KIEV, Sept. 27 - President Viktor Yushchenko strengthened the government??™s economic team by appointing Arseniy Yatseniuk, 31, a former central banker, to the post of economy minister while reappointing most other Cabinet members.