KIEV, Aug. 30 – President Viktor Yanukovych will visit Dushanbe, Tajikistan, in early September to attend the next meeting of the CIS Heads of State Council.

"On September 2-3, 2011, Dushanbe will host a regular meeting of the CIS Heads of State Council, which will be preceded by a meeting of the Council of CIS Foreign Ministers. The Ukrainian delegation will be led by President Viktor Yanukovych at the meeting of the CIS Heads of State Council," Ukrainian Foreign Ministry spokesman Oleksandr Dykusarov said at a briefing on Tuesday.

KIEV, Aug. 30 – It is unclear whether Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych and Polish President Bronislaw Komorowski discussed the plight of imprisoned Ukrainian opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko during their meeting in Gdansk.

KIEV, Aug. 31 – All cholera patients and carriers in Mariupol (Donetsk region) have been discharged from hospital after recovering as of Wednesday morning, and the source of infection of the disease in the town has been eradicated, reads a statement posted on the Web site of the Donetsk regional sanitary and epidemiological service, citing Viktor Denysenko, the chief state sanitary doctor in the region.

KIEV, Aug. 31 - Ukraine set an Oct. 15 deadline for reaching an agreement with Russia over lowering natural gas prices and warned again it may seek to abrogate the current controversial 10-year contract through the courts.

KIEV, Aug. 31 - Ukraine, which is thought to contain some of Europe’s largest deposits of shale gas, will award its first shale gas contract to oil major Shell on Thursday, a senior official said Wednesday.

MOSCOW, Aug. 31 – Russia and Ukraine on Wednesday moved a step closer to a clash over natural gas imports after Gazprom had threatened to respond with sanctions should Kiev go ahead with plans to reduce gas imports.

KIEV, Aug. 30 – Kazakhstan is interested in the resumption of its oil deliveries through Ukraine and this issue will be discussed during the visit of Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev to Ukraine scheduled for September 14-15, Kazakh Ambassador Amangeldy Zhumabayev announced at a press conference in Kiev on Monday.

MOSCOW, Aug. 31 – Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin believes that the existing discount on its gas is sufficient for Ukraine.

"We are selling gas to Ukraine at a European price formula. And now we have even made a discount of $100 from the European formula. Well, what else can we do? It is enough as it is," the prime minister said in an interview with the Komsomolskaya Pravda daily, published on Tuesday.

KIEV, Aug. 31 – Caravaggio's "The Taking of Christ," which was stolen from a Ukrainian museum, has been returned to Ukraine by the presidential aircraft, the president’s press service announced.

KIEV, Aug. 31 – Ukraine’s energy and fuel minister on Tuesday ruled out any further hikes in natural gas prices for households, effectively reversing the government’s earlier promise to the International Monetary Fund.