KIEV, July 29 - The International Monetary Fund approved a $15.1 billion loan for Ukraine at a meeting late Wednesday after the government promised to cut its budget deficit and to hike household natural gas prices.

KIEV, July 29 – President Viktor Yushchenko and Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko appear to view differently progress that has been made last week in talks with the European Commission over lending for natural gas purchases.

KIEV, July 29 – Russia and Ukraine on Wednesday moved a step closer to a diplomatic war after Moscow announced it will expel two Ukrainian diplomats in retaliation for a similar action taken by Kiev.

KIEV, July 29 – Ukraine will seek to get its next $3.1 billion installment from the International Monetary Fund in September, two months earlier than planned, acting Finance Minister Ihor Umanskiy said Wednesday.

KIEV, July 29 – Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko promised on Tuesday that "as soon as the crisis begins to subside," her government would "definitely" resume paying compensation to Ukrainians for savings in the former Soviet Sberbank and Gosstrakh insurance company that were depreciated during and after the collapse of the Soviet Union.

KIEV, July 29 – The death toll from storms and floods in western Ukraine rose to 30 people, including six children, over the past three days, the Emergency Situations Ministry reported Tuesday.

KIEV, July 29 – President Viktor Yushchenko on Tuesday asked the State Property Fund to drop its plan to file a lawsuit against Arcelor Mittal and called for negotiations to settle the dispute over Ukrainian assets.

KIEV, July 29 – The government on Tuesday submitted to Parliament amendments to the 2008 budget seeking to increase emergency funding to western regions that suffered from the worst floods in 100 years.

NOVODNISTROVSK, Chernivtsi region, July 27 – The launch of the first storage pump at the Dniester pump-storage plant has been postponed from late 2007 until 2008 due to problems with financing the project in the first half of the year.

KIEV, July 27 – The Ukrainian government has ordered the State Property Fund to draft new conditions for the privatization of Odessa port-side plant in order to make the tender to sell the plant as open as possible, according to First Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Mykola Azarov.