KIEV, April 1 - Ukraine's national football team has taken 26th place in the latest FIFA world ranking, two spots down from a month ago, according to the official Web site of the international football organization.

KIEV, April 1 – Ukraine’s strategic goal is to join the European Union, not a union with Russia and Belarus, and that course cannot be changed, President Viktor Yanukovych said Thursday.

KIEV, April 1 – President Viktor Yanukovych said Thursday he “wants very much” for the Constitutional Court to rule that the governing coalition is legal, and added he will “pray to God” to secure the positive ruling.

KIEV, March 31 – President Viktor Yanukovych is considering the possibility of visiting Kazakhstan in the near future, he said at a meeting with OSCE Chairman-in-Office and Kazakh Secretary of State and Foreign Minister Kanat Saudabayev in Kiev on Wednesday.

KIEV, March 30 – Naftogaz Ukrayiny, as part of the realization of a project on the exploration and development of hydrocarbon fields on the territory of the Al Fujairah emirate (the United Arab Emirates) on March 29, started drilling the first well, the Hamad-1, on land, the Ukrainian state holding announced.

KIEV, March 30 – Russia's objections to the Ukraine-EU declaration on the reconstruction of the Ukrainian gas transit system will not bring about a new gas war between Kiev and Moscow, according to President Viktor Yushchenko.

KIEV, March 31 – Russia again has showed that its key interest is to prevent any changes in the Ukrainian gas transportation system, James Sherr, head of the Russia and Eurasia Program at the Royal Institute of International Affairs, said in an interview with the Dzerkalo Tyzhnya newspaper.

KIEV, April 1 – The Ukrainian government, as a part of its anti-crisis program, could buy some troubled commercial banks to further support them, Ukrainian Premier Yulia Tymoshenko said on the ICTV channel on Monday night.

KIEV, April 1 – Ukraine on Wednesday was forced to re-route some supplies of Russian natural gas to Europe after an explosion of a gas pipeline section in Moldova, Naftogaz Ukrayiny reported.

The accident disrupted Ananiyev-Tiraspol-Izmail pipeline, a route that carries Russian gas exports via Moldova to Balkan countries, including Romania, Bulgaria, Turkey, Greece and Macedonia, according to Naftogaz.

KIEV, April 1 – The opposition Regions Party said it will block the work of Parliament indefinitely starting Thursday, accusing Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko’s government of inability to tackle Ukraine’s severe economic crisis, a lawmaker said.