KIEV, May 29 – Oligarchs should be barred from influencing power, President Petro Poroshenko said on Ukrainian television.

KIEV, May 31 - The head of an International Monetary Fund team visiting Ukraine gave a positive assessment of progress by Kiev on reform on Sunday and said there would be further discussion on loans that the near-bankrupt country badly needs, Reuters reported.

KIEV, May 31 – President Petro Poroshenko has appointed former Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili to be governor of Ukraine's southern Odessa region, in a surprise move that is certain to raise hackles in Moscow, Reuters reported.

KIEV, June 1 - A special mission of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe is in talks with a number of groups in eastern Ukraine to release two of its teams that have been detained there for days, Reuters reported Sunday.

KIEV, May 30 - Ukraine paid $786.3 million to Russian natural gas giant Gazprom for gas supplied in February through March, the national energy company Naftogaz Ukrayiny reported on Friday.

DONETSK, June 1 – Russian politicians are financing the separatist government in Donetsk to pursue anti-West geo-political interests, Alexander Borodai, the self-appointed prime minister of the breakaway region, said Sunday.

KIEV/BRUSSELS, May 31 – Ukrainian First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister Economic Development and Trade Andriy Kliuyev and EU Commissioner for Enlargement and European Neighborhood Policy Stefan Fule met in Brussels on Tuesday and discussed preparations for the next round of talks on the creation of a free trade area between Ukraine and the EU, which will be held in Kiev on June 20-24, 2011.

KIEV, June 1 – Parliament plans to define the concept of "counterfeit medicine" and introduce criminal punishment for the counterfeiting of medicine.

The draft law on amendments to some Ukrainian laws to prevent the counterfeiting of medicine was supported at first reading by 247 lawmakers on Tuesday.

KIEV, June 1 - Another criminal case may be opened against former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, in connection with the purchase of vaccines during the flu epidemic in November 2009, announced Renat Kuzmin, the first deputy prosecutor general.

BRUSSELS, June 1 – Ukraine hopes to resume cooperation with the International Monetary Fund in the near future through the implementation of previous agreements, First Deputy Prime Minister Andriy Kliuyev said.