KIEV, Jan. 30 – Ukraine supports the initiative of the European Union on resumption of the natural gas monitoring and the country is ready to receive a group of international experts arriving in Kiev on January 30, Energy and Coal Industry Minister Volodymyr Demchyshyn said at a meeting with Polish, Slovakian, Czech, Hungarian, German and EU ambassadors.

KIEV, Jan. 30 – National Bank of Ukraine Governor Valeriya Gontareva says she plans to remove the "oligarch" schemes from the Ukrainian banking system.

KIEV, Jan. 30 – The Cabinet of Ministers has passed a resolution boosting pay for participants in combat operations and giving soldiers incentive bonuses for destroying or capturing enemy equipment, the Defense Ministry reported.

MOSCOW, Jan. 30 – The 12th convoy with humanitarian aid for Ukraine's south-eastern regions has been formed and is expected to depart for Donetsk and Luhansk on January 31.

KIEV, Feb. 1 - Fighting raged in eastern Ukraine on Sunday as pro-Russian separatists used artillery fire to try to dislodge government forces from a strategic rail hub, Reuters reported.

In the meantime, hopes of easing the situation evaporated on Saturday as peace talks collapsed, with Ukraine's representative and separatist envoys accusing each other of sabotaging negotiations.

BRUSSELS, Jan. 31 – The Ukrainian gas transport system, if it is upgraded by a trilateral consortium between Ukraine, Russia and the EU, will be more effective than the construction of a whole new system through the Black Sea (South Stream), EU Energy Commissioner Gunther Oettinger said at a press conference in Brussels on Tuesday.

KIEV, Jan. 31 – The Foreign Ministry has criticized the Ukrainian opposition, claiming that it is attempting to make Europe introduce sanctions on Ukraine.

"Sanctions against officials, and not against the whole of Ukraine, do not exist indeed, because the statutory documents of the Council of Europe envisage only two kinds of sanctions: either the whole delegation, including the opposition, is deprived of the right to vote, or the state is expelled from the Council of Europe," of the Foreign Ministry Information Policy Department Director Oleh Voloshyn said during a roundtable entitled "After Davos: Prospects of Ukraine's Foreign Policy and Energy Security" in Kiev on Tuesday.

KIEV, Feb. 1 - Four Ukrainian coal miners were rescued and successfully lifted to the surface late Tuesday following a gallery collapse that had trapped them deep underground, the Emergency Situations Ministry reported Wednesday.

WASHINGTON, Feb. 1 — The daughter of former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko says her mother is being tortured in prison, The Washington Post reported Wednesday.

KIEV, Feb. 1 - The websites of President Viktor Yanukovych, the security service and the interior ministry were put out of action on Wednesday as disgruntled Internet users hit back at the government after it shut down a popular file sharing site.