KIEV, July 21 - German Chancellor Angela Merkel pledged Monday to help Ukraine implement reforms to bring the former Soviet republic into NATO, a prospect strongly opposed by Russia.

"We are proceeding from the fact that one day Ukraine will become a member of NATO," Merkel told reporters after meeting with President Viktor Yushchenko, The Associated Press reported.

LVIV, July 20 – Ukraine will need three to four days to finish cleanup of the area damaged by the crash of the train carrying hazardous chemicals, President Viktor Yushchenko said Friday.

KIEV, July 21 ??“ Ukraine??™s police used a trick that provoked Rinat Akhmetov to identify himself, backing suspicions of his alleged involvement in a shooting incident 17 years ago, a senior police officer said Thursday.

KIEV, July 21 ??“ The World Bank says it is possible for Ukraine to join the World Trade Organization before the end of the current year.

KYIV, June 21 - Ukrainian and Russian forces remained entrenched in eastern Ukrainian battlegrounds going into Wednesday, a day of commemoration in both countries to mark the anniversary of Hitler's invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941.

KYIV, June 21 – The National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) estimates Ukraine's losses from destroyed housing, business and infrastructure due to Russian aggression at 50% of GDP in 2021, or $100 billion, according to a financial stability report published on the central bank's website on Tuesday.

KYIV, June 17 – Ukraine is moving into a zone of ultra-high temperatures and cataclysms due to weather changes, and in the next 30-40 years, the country is threatened with desertification of vast territories, which threatens the loss of biodiversity, lack of water, the spread of poverty, hunger and mass migration of the population, the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources reported on its website on Thursday.

KYIV, June 21 - The Biden White House has temporarily halted a military aid package to Ukraine that would include lethal weapons, a plan originally made in response to aggressive Russian troop movements along Ukraine's border this spring, Politico reported Friday.

BRUSSELS, June 19 - European Union leaders agreed on Friday to extend until the end of January next year their economic sanctions against Russia over its 2014 annexation of Crimea and the turmoil in eastern Ukraine, Reuters reported.

KYIV, June 21 - President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said the international community must maintain pressure on Moscow to return the land it seized from Ukraine in 2014, adding that international sanctions against Russia must continue, The Globe and Mail reported.