ST. PETERSBURG, Oct. 18 - Russia, Ukraine and six other former Soviet republics signed a free-trade agreement Tuesday that will scrap export and import duties on some goods, The Associated Press reported.

BRUSSELS, Oct. 18 - The European Union has postponed a meeting planned this week with Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych because of concerns over judicial standards following the jailing of former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko.

MOSCOW, Oct. 17 - Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and his Ukrainian counterpart Viktor Yanukovych will discuss the euro zone situation and, in the case of the Ukrainian interest, the formation of the Customs Union in Donetsk on October 18, Russian Presidential Aide Sergei Prikhodko told a Monday press briefing.

KIEV, Oct. 17 – President Viktor Yanukovych will depart on October 20 for six days of state visits to Cuba and Brazil, the head of the presidential administration, Serhiy Liovochkin, has said.

MOSCOW, Oct. 18 - The Russian and Ukrainian prime ministers could hold a bilateral meeting in the corridors of multi-party events in St. Petersburg on October 18-19.

KIEV, Oct. 18 - Ukraine will reverse its Odessa-Brody oil pipeline flow in the near future to start moving massive supplies of Venezuelan crude to Belarus, President Viktor Yanukovych said Monday.

KIEV, Oct. 18 - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said he is content with his country’s level of military-technical cooperation with Russia.

"We are acquiring S-300 missile systems and other weapons from Russia, and this process is well underway,"Chavez said in Kiev on Monday while visiting the Antonov Company, when asked by Interfax whether Caracas could buy the S-300 missile systems which Russia earlier planned to deliver to Iran.

BRUSSELS, Oct. 15 – Political support and consolidation are required to implement a project on the creation of the Eurasian oil transport corridor, said President Viktor Yushchenko.

"We believe that the full implementation of the project should be ensured at the technical and economic levels," Yushchenko said in Brussels on Thursday, following his meeting with European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso.

KIEV, Oct 16 - Kiev's proposal to use Ukrainian radar stations in the new U.S. missile defense architecture is a normal thing, said Ukraine's First Deputy Presidential Secretariat Chief and former defense minister Yuriy Yekhanurov.

KIEV, Oct. 16 – Experts from the European Commission reacted positively to a feasibility study and plans for the Eurasian oil transport corridor based on the Odessa-Brody oil pipeline operating in direct mode, according to the presidential secretariat.