KIEV, May 25 – The government plans to increase capital of state energy company, Naftogaz Ukrayiny, by 8.3% to 45.8 billion hryvnias, a move that may be aimed at rescuing the company from bankruptcy.

The government over the past two years has repeatedly resorted to injecting state capital into the company over the pasr two years, underscoring the company’s difficulties to pay for Russian gas imports.

KIEV, May 25 - Ukraine, one of the world’s top grain exporters, has removed grain export quotas that have helped drive up global food prices and hit domestic agribusinesses hard.

MOSCOW, May 25 – Russia plans to redirect 20% of the gas it transports through Ukraine to the new Nord Stream pipeline, a move that may deprive Ukraine $700 million in annual transit revenues.

KIEV, May 25 - President Viktor Yanukovych on Wednesday reiterated plans of signing a free trade agreement with the European Union this year, a choice that may eventually complicate relations with Russia.

KIEV, May 25 – President Viktor Yanukovych has signed new wording of the law on amendments to some Ukrainian laws preventing money laundering and financing terrorism.

KIEV, May 25 – A group of U.S. specialists is to arrive to Ukraine in the first half of June for talks on upping U.S. financial aid in a program to dispose of solid fuel from SS-24 intercontinental ballistic missiles at Pavlohrad Chemical Plant (Dnipropetrovsk region).

KIEV, May 25 – Ukrainian opposition groups on Tuesday had mixed reactions to plans by President Viktor Yanukovych to hold a roundtable meeting to discuss prospects for holding local elections in the fall.

KIEV, May 25 – Statements by Deputy Prime Minister Oleksandr Tuchynov are an attempt to hide the catastrophic aftereffects of January's Ukrainian-Russian gas agreements from the Ukrainian people, according to Yuriy Boyko, Regions shadow fuel and energy minister and former head of Naftogaz Ukrayiny.

KIEV, May 25 – In a message aimed at preventing Kiev’s increasing cooperation with the European Union and the U.S., Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said Sunday that other countries must stay away from his nation’s relations with Ukraine.

KIEV, May 25 – Ukraine’s economy, hit by the global financial crisis, may have contracted 23% on the year in the first quarter, and is perhaps the fastest shrinking economy in Eastern Europe, President Viktor Yushchenko said Monday.