KIEV, July 20 – President Viktor Yushchenko almost doubled his popular support rating over the past four weeks after starting a vigorous campaign to seek reelection in January 2010, the latest opinion poll released Monday shows.

KIEV, July 20 – U.S. Vice President Joe Biden arrived in Ukraine on Monday to reassure the country that US efforts to repair relations with Moscow will not come at the expense of support for Russia's ex-Soviet neighbors.

KIEV, July 17 – Setting unrealistically high macroeconomic indicators for Ukraine's economy has weakened the efficiency of the government's anti-crisis efforts and disrupted the balance of budget, taxation, pension and monetary policies, President Viktor Yushchenko said at a meeting with regional mass media at his Syniohora residence in Ivano-Frankivsk region.

KIEV, July 20 – The gas contract signed by the present Ukrainian government will soon negatively affect the competitiveness of a range of Ukrainian sectors, according to Arseniy Yatseniuk, the Front for Change initiative leader.

KIEV, July 18 - The World Bank on Friday revised upwards Ukraine's 2008 inflation forecast to 21.5%, up from 17%, in a further sign that the government’s forecast of 15.9% was too optimistic.

Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko has been insisting that Ukraine’s inflation will not exceed 15.9% even as consumer prices rose 15.5% in January through June.

MOSCOW, July 18 – Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko called her Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin on Friday to discuss trade and economic relations, Putin’s spokesman reported.

“Putin and Tymoshenko discussed various aspects of bilateral trade and economic cooperation,” Dmitry Peskov, the spokesman, said, according to Itar-Tass, the state-owned news agency.

MOSCOW, July 18 – Russia’s Foreign Ministry said Friday it was concerned over joint NATO-Ukraine naval exercises in the Black Sea, its first such complaint the in many years the annual Sea Breeze exercises have been running.

KIEV, July 19 - The Ukrainian government at a cabinet meeting on Wednesday considered and sent for elaboration of a draft resolution on the management of corporate rights in UkrTatNafta transnational financial and industrial oil company (the Kremenchuk oil refinery in Poltava region), which foresees a transfer of the whole Ukrainian stake in the company to the cabinet, Economy Minister Anatoliy Kinakh has told the press.

KIEV, July 19 - Ukraine on Thursday suspended all shipments of yellow phosphorus in reaction to the train crash on Monday that produced a toxic cloud in western Ukraine threatening 11,000 people, an official said.

KIEV, July 19 - At least 143 people have been hospitalized in Ukraine for symptoms blamed on a toxic cloud formed by chemicals leaking from a crashed train near Lviv, the Healthcare Ministry reported Thursday.