KIEV, March 23 - Ukraine will probably stop imports of Russian natural gas on April 1 until the parties agree on lower gas prices, Energy and Copal Industry Minister Volodymyr Demchyshyn said Monday.

LONDON, March 23 - Ukraine has officially invited Russia to participate in debt restructuring talks but has not yet received a response, the country's Finance Minister Natalia Yaresko said on Monday, Reuters reported.

BRUSSELS, March 21 - The European Union will be prepared to enact Phase 3 of its three-stage plan of sanctions against Russia that was agreed two weeks ago if it sees any further escalation of Russia's unfriendly activities in regard to Ukraine, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said at a press conference after the first working session of the European Council.

KIEV, March 21 - Ukraine will shortly file lawsuits against Russia at international courts to seek compensation for seizing “hundreds billions of US dollars” worth of property following its invasion and annexation of Crimea, Prime Minister Arseniy Yatseniuk said Friday.

KIEV, March 21 - Ukraine’s law enforcement agents on Friday raided offices of the national energy company Naftogaz Ukrayiny and detained the head of the company as part of a massive corruption investigation, an official said.

KIEV, March 23 - Parts of Crimea were hit by power outages late on Sunday and the regional power company blamed them on technical problems in a power line from the Ukrainian mainland to the Black Sea peninsula, which has been wrestled away from Kiev by Moscow.

Local residents said there was no electricity in several cities in Crimea including in some districts of the provincial capital of Simferopol, though the city center was not affected, Reuters reported.

BRUSSELS, March 21 - The European Union and Ukraine signed the core elements of a political association agreement on Friday, committing to the same deal former president Viktor Yanukovych rejected last November, a move which led to his overthrow.

BRUSSELS, March 23 - NATO's top military commander said on Sunday Russia had built up a "very sizeable" force on its border with Ukraine and Moscow may have a region in another ex-Soviet republic, Moldova, in its sights after annexing Crimea, Reuters reported.

KIEV, March 22 - Germany's foreign minister pledged to help the new Ukrainian government on Saturday and heard an appeal from the prime minister in Kiev that it will need energy from the European Union to secure it against Russia cutting supplies, Reuters reported.

KIEV, March 23 - Prime Minister Mykola Azarov on Wednesday attacked importers and retailers of gasoline and diesel fuel for charging significant mark-ups that lead to higher gasoline prices at the pump.