KIEV, April 18 – As the result of a pre-trial investigation into a criminal organization involved in the illegal mining of amber in Rivne region (the so-called 'amber mafia' case), 31 persons were brought to court, and 25 of them were sentenced, Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko said.

THE HAGUE, April 19 - The International Court of Justice on Wednesday rejected Ukraine's request for measures aimed at blocking Russian support for rebels in eastern Ukraine, saying Kiev did not provide enough evidence to back up its claim that Moscow sponsored terrorism by funding and arming the rebels, The Associated Press reported.

KIEV, April 19 – Former economic development and trade minister Aivaras Abromavicius heads the recently created supervisory board of Ukrainian Corporate Governance Academy that was recently created.

BRUSSELS, April 20 - The European Commission has said Ukraine is ready for its nationals to enter the EU without visas, putting the Netherlands in a tricky position, EU Observer reported.

KIEV, April 19 - President Petro Poroshenko has instructed the Ministry of Finance and the State Fiscal Service to study the issue of Ukraine's accession to the convention on access to the accounts of non-residents.

KIEV, April 19 - People living in areas not controlled by Kiev (in eastern Ukraine) will not be able to receive Ukrainian pensions there, the minister on the temporarily occupied territories and internally displaced persons of Ukraine, Vadym Chernysh, said.

KIEV, April 20 – First Deputy Prime Minister Stepan Kubiv said that Ukraine plans to conclude negotiations with the IMF on the second revision of the reform program and receive the third tranche of the loan by the end of the second quarter of this year.

BRUSSELS, April 17 – Expert-level talks between Russia, Ukraine and the European Commission made progress toward resolving differences over Russian gas supplies to Ukraine, but no date has yet been set for a high-level meeting, the European Commission said on Friday.

KIEV, April 20 – Prime Minister Arseniy Yatseniuk said he is certain that the IMF, G7 countries and the EU have noticed the beginning of active reforms in Ukraine.

KIEV, April 20 - Ukraine intends to privatize state-owned enterprises that are not strategic, planning to start this process with the test sale of one or two assets, possibly with a thermal power generating company, Minister of Economic Development and Trade Aivaras Abromavicius has stated.