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.

KIEV, Feb. 20 – Ukraine’s political crisis appeared set to deepen after opposition parties and pro-government groups failed to agree on ways of unblocking Parliament.

KIEV, Feb. 17 – The BYT-Batkivschyna faction in Parliament has transferred UAH 3.6 million to the haemato-oncology center for bone marrow transplantation at the Okhmatdyt National Children's Hospital.

KIEV, Feb. 20 - President Viktor Yanukovych has dismissed Hryhoriy Pedchenko from the post of Chief of General Staff, Commander-in-Chief of the Ukrainian Armed Forces and appointed Volodymyr Zamana to the post.

KIEV, Feb. 20 - The Russian State Duma and the Ukrainian Verkhovna Rada will simultaneously ratify the CIS free trade zone agreement.

"We have agreed to the synchronous consideration of this important document, which will significantly facilitate trade operations between economic agents in our states," State Duma Speaker Sergei Naryshkin told a Monday press conference in Kiev.

KIEV, Feb. 20 - Ukraine seeks to change the formula setting Russian natural gas prices to make sure the prices remain competitive, Andriy Kliuyev, the secretary of the National Security and Defense Council, said Monday.

Kliuyev made the statement at a meeting with Sergei Naryshkin, the head of the State Duma, the lower house of Russian Parliament, amid media reports that Russia had suggested lowering the prices 10%.

KIEV, Feb. 20 – Ukraine’s state prison authority on Monday agreed to let jailed opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko undergo possible surgery outside prison to alleviate her persistent back pain.

KIEV, Feb. 17 – A live broadcast of President Viktor Yanukovych answering questions from the public will start at 11 a.m. on February 25, the First National TV Channel reported.