KIEV, Aug. 20 – The Foreign Ministry has advised Ukrainian citizens to refrain from visiting Abkhazia and South Ossetia, as well as traveling to Georgia via the Adler and Nizhny Zaramag checkpoints on the Georgia-Russian border as Georgia adopted the law on occupied territories, which bans entry to these territories for citizens of foreign countries and persons without citizenship.

KIEV, Aug. 21 – Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko remains the most influential person in Ukraine according to the Korrespondent magazine.

The owner of the SCM group of companies, Regions Party MP Rinat Akhmetov is in second place, Regions Party leader Viktor Yanukovych is third, the major stockholder of the EastOne international investment advisory group, Viktor Pinchuk, appears at No. 4, and President Viktor Yushchenko was ranked at No. 5.

MAKIYIVKA, Aug. 24 – Eight miners were killed and 11 injured in an explosion in a coal mine in eastern Ukraine, the latest tragedy to hit the country's troubled mining industry, AFP reported Monday.

The suspected methane gas blast took place Sunday at a mine in Makiyivka, a city in Ukraine's coal-rich Donetsk region.

KIEV, Aug. 24 – President Viktor Yushchenko on Monday vowed to ensure the next presidential election is free from any manipulation, suggesting that he will take action to derail controversial legislation that was approved on Friday.

KIEV, Aug. 24 – President Viktor Yushchenko on Monday suggested a comprehensive plan of economic reforms that he said would reduce corporate taxes, lower inflation, stabilize the local currency and encourage foreign and domestic investments.

KIEV, Aug. 24 - President Viktor Yushchenko on Wednesday called for an overhaul of the election law that would prevent weak parties from entering Parliament following the crucial general election in March 2006.

KYIV, July 23 – U.S. aerospace giant Boeing Co. and the state enterprise Antonov (Kyiv) entered into a memorandum of cooperation in the defense sector, in particular the development of unmanned aerial systems.

NEW YORK, July 23 - The U.S. Treasury Department ordered the nation’s banking industry to start disclosing its holdings of Russian assets on Tuesday, with the goal of eventually seizing those billions of dollars in assets and selling them to aid the devastated Ukrainian economy.

KYIV, July 23 – Ukraine has been seeking to acquire Sweden's JAS 39 Gripen fighter jets to challenge Russia’s numerical superiority in aircraft, Business Insider reported citing a U.S. military analyst who’s just returned from a trip to Ukraine.

KYIV, July 22 - Ukrainian pilots will start training on F-16 fighter jets in the next few weeks and will be flying combat missions against Russian units before the end of the year, The Telegraph reported.

This is earlier than Ukrainian officials had predicted when NATO agreed this month to set up an F-16 training center in Romania.