KIEV, May 26 – Ukraine should cut its budget deficit this year in order to reduce external borrowing and to win confidence from foreign investors, Deputy Prime Minister Serhiy Tyhypko said Wednesday.

KIEV, May 26 – Olekskiy Pukach, a former top police officer alleged to have killed journalist Heorhiy Gongadze in 2000, said investigators must question “senior officials” in connection with the case, Ukrayinska Pravda reported Wednesday, citing a source.

KIEV, May 26 – The People’s Committee for Defense of Ukraine, the country’s opposition body, on Wednesday urged the International Monetary Fund to postpone lending to the government until it launches economic reforms and improves democracy.

KIEV, May 26 – President Viktor Yushchenko jointly with representatives of gambling business plans this week to draw up and submit to Parliament proposals on a law that temporarily bans the gambling business, Yushchenko said to representatives of gambling business demonstrating near Ukrainian House in Kiev on Monday.

KIEV, May 26 – The hryvnia exchange rate at present is balanced and will retain its stability in the near future, said Anatoliy Shapovalov, the first deputy governor of the National Bank of Ukraine.

KIEV, May 26 – The government and the National Bank of Ukraine must act quickly to recapitalize the banking sector to boost credit and to stimulate economic growth, former Finance Minister Viktor Pynzenyk said Tuesday.

Pynzenyk, who resigned earlier this year following a dispute with Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, faulted the government for delaying the recapitalization, while spending money on sectors less affected by the crisis.

KIEV, May 26 - Libya and Ukraine will increase cooperation, including boosting trade in crude oil and building a joint oil refinery near the Ukrainian seaport of Odessa, Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko said Tuesday.

KIEV, May 26 – Political divisions between President Viktor Yushchenko and Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko widened on Tuesday after the two traded attacks targeting each other’s allies.

KIEV, May 26 – The National Bank of Ukraine may soon establish a new currency trading band within which the hryvnia will be allowed to fluctuate against the U.S. dollar this year, a senior official said Monday.

Petro Poroshenko, the head of the NBU’s Council, which sets long-term policy, said the band will replace the previous band of 4.95 to 5.25 to the dollar that had been in effect until recently.

KIEV, May 26 – Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko’s government on Monday signaled its readiness for talks with U.S. oil company Vanco Energy to settle the dispute over an offshore oil production license.