KIEV, Feb. 27 – Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin has said Ukraine needs more defensive and high-tech weapons and called for more efficient cooperation with the U.S. and NATO.

KIEV, Feb. 27 – Chairman of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar People and Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine deputy (Petro Poroshenko Bloc faction) Refat Chubarov has criticized the recent trip of parliament deputy Nadezhda Savchenko to occupied Donetsk, saying he is against attempts to fracture unified state policy into pieces.

KIEV, Feb. 27 – Ukraine's Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin has said speculation over leasing Crimea to the Russian Federation is a deliberate surrender of the annexed peninsula to [Russian] occupiers.

"Speculation that Crimea will 'go the way of Alaska' is a deliberate attempt to surrender Crimea. No one in the U.S. seriously discusses these kinds of plans.

KIEV, Feb. 27 - Russian-backed separatists in Ukraine on Monday threatened to seize control of enterprises across their territories unless Kiev halts a blockade by nationalist protesters, AFP reported.

KIEV, Feb. 26 - Three former Ukrainian presidents, Leonid Kravchuk, Leonid Kuchma, and Viktor Yushchenko, have issued a joint statement accusing Russia of direct interference in Crimea's political affairs.

KIEV, Feb. 27 – The vital systems of the financial market of Ukraine, including the electronic payment system and operations on the open market, are functioning as normal, and the foreign exchange reserves of the National Bank of Ukraine consist of highly liquid assets, said Stepan Kubiv, the new head of the country's central bank.

KIEV, Feb. 27 – Independent MP Serhiy Mischenko has proposed the liquidation of the Income and Tax Ministry and the creation of the State Tax Service and the State Customs Service on its basis.

Relevant draft resolution No. 4280 on improving the activities of the income and tax authorities was registered in Parliament on February 26.

KIEV, Feb. 27 - Parliament Speaker and interim President Oleksandr Turchynov is calling on the Russian Black Sea Fleet servicemen stationed in Crimea not to leave the boundaries of their bases as established by Ukrainian-Russian agreements.

KIEV, Feb. 27 - Ukraine's new prime minister said on Thursday loans worth $37 billion had gone missing from state coffers during ousted President Viktor Yanukovych’s rule, and warned that unpopular measures were needed to salvage the economy.

KIEV, Feb. 27 - The United States told Russia to demonstrate in the coming days that it was sincere about its promise not to intervene in Ukraine, after armed men seized the regional parliament in Crimea and raised the Russian flag.