KIEV, May 16 – The Ukrainian government intends to speed up the adoption of an aviation industry development program designed to run until 2020, which will foresee the corporatization of aircraft enterprises in order to improve their competitiveness, First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economic Development and Trade Andriy Kliuyev said in an interview with Interfax-Ukraine.

KIEV, May 17 – President Viktor Yanukovych will visit Poland on May 27-28 to take part in a meeting of the heads of Central and Eastern European states, Regions Party MP Leonid Kozhara said.

KIEV, May 18 - The approval from the European Union may be required if Russia and Ukraine decide to go ahead with merging assets of Gazprom and Naftogaz Ukrayiny, a senior Ukrainian official said.

KIEV, May 18 – Ukraine seeks to resume imports of natural gas from the Central Asia and has asked Russia to stop opposing the efforts and to open its gas pipelines.

“We would like to get back to this issue,” President Viktor Yanukovych said at a business forum in Kiev joined by his Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev. “This partially concerns oil, but mostly natural gas.”

KIEV, May 18 - Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said Tuesday Russia will not be “forcing” natural gas sector projects on Ukraine, but argued greater cooperation was needed to ensure steady transit of its gas to Europe.

KIEV, May 18 – A sister of an outspoken critic of President Viktor Yanukovych was arrested on Tuesday in an alleged bribery investigation, but was later released after senior officials had intervened.

KIEV, May 18 – The National Bank of Ukraine has cancelled a moratorium on the early withdrawal of bank deposits that has been in effect since October 2008.

A respective decision is foreseen in bank resolution No. 282 of May 12, 2009, which came into force on the day it was signed.

KIEV, May 18 - President Viktor Yushchenko, concerned about the possibility of Naftogaz Ukrayiny default, on Monday urged the government to amend its budget to provide more funding for the national oil and gas company.

KIEV, May 16 - President Viktor Yushchenko, in his state-of-the-nation speech published on Friday, called on the government to sign a long-term natural gas supply agreement with Russia before the end of July.

KIEV, May 18 – Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko’s group, after a four-month delay, on Friday backed legislation increasing the powers of President Viktor Yushchenko, but relations between the two continued to remain tense.