KIEV, Feb. 18 - Ukraine vowed on Thursday to fight Russia's demand for the full repayment of a $3 billion loan it issued to the country in 2013 under ousted Moscow-backed president Viktor Yanukovych, AFP reported.

BRUSSELS, Feb. 19 – European Parliament President Martin Schulz has made a statement on the deadly clashes in Ukraine, in which he urged all sides of the conflict to refrain from violence.

BRUSSELS, Feb. 19 - European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said that the EU will respond to any deterioration of the situation in Ukraine with targeted measures against those responsible for violence.

SOCHI, Feb. 20 - Two members of Ukraine's Olympics team decided on Thursday to pull out of the Sochi Winter Games in support of demonstrators back home after widespread anti-government protests left dozens dead and hundreds injured.

WASHINGTON, Feb. 20 - U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel has been unable to get anyone on the phone at Ukraine's defense ministry over the past several days as violence flared and Kiev named a new head of the armed forces general staff, Reuters reported Thursday, citing the Pentagon.

KIEV, Feb. 20 - The European Union agreed on Thursday to impose sanctions on those responsible for deadly violence in Ukraine and warned it would ratchet up the pressure if the situation there got worse.

KIEV, Feb. 20 - European Union foreign ministers sought to broker a political settlement in Ukraine after gun battles between police and anti-government protesters brought the death toll to 75 in two days of the worst violence in the country since Soviet times.

KIEV, Feb. 19 – The government plans in February or March to submit to Parliament a draft law on a reduction in the unitary social tax rate to 15% and the expansion of the progressive personal income tax scale, with a reduction of the minimum rate to 10%, First Deputy Prime Minister Serhiy Arbuzov said.

KIEV, Feb. 20 – Polish President Bronislaw Komorowski and Slovak President Ivan Gasparovic say they will tell Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych to make conciliatory gestures to the West when the three meet in the Polish town of Wisla.

KIEV, Feb. 20 - Ukraine plans this year to resume imports of natural gas from Turkmenistan, Energy and Coal Industry Minister Eduard Stavytskiy said Wednesday.