KYIV, Dec 14 - The Government of Japan has transferred radio stations with secure communication channels to Ukraine's National Police. The value of the gear is $500,000. The equipment will be used for new base stations in the Sumy region.

KYIV, Dec 17 – Ukrainian fishermen will lose an opportunity of fishing in the Sea of Azov if the Ukrainian-Russian commission for fishery does not approve the acceptable amount of fish catch in 2019, the press service of the State Fisheries Agency of Ukraine reported.

KYIV, Dec 16 - Ukrainian Orthodox Christian priests selected a 39-year-old bishop to lead newly independent church, cementing a split from the previous Russian hierarchy in a step that’s further straining relations between the two countries.

KYIV, Dec 17 - A drive to impose more sanctions on Russia seems to be "gaining some traction" following a naval confrontation in the Black Sea last month, according to the U.S. special envoy for Ukraine, RFE/RL reported.

KYIV, Dec. 17 - Police and protesters have clashed in central Kyiv as several thousand people took to the streets of the Ukrainian capital to call for the impeachment of President Petro Poroshenko and the resignation of the country's top prosecutor, RFE/RL reported.

WASHINGTON, Dec. 17 – The board of the International Monetary Fund has determined that Ukraine's $3 billion debt to Russia has official, not commercial, status.

KIEV, Dec. 17 – Russia has been unable to substantiate its fears at the Ukraine-EU-Russia negotiations regarding the Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Area (DCFTA) agreement between Ukraine and the European Union, said Jan Tombinski, head of the EU Delegation to Ukraine.

MOSCOW, Dec. 17 – Head of the European Union Delegation to Russia Vygaudas Usackas expects that the participants in a Russia-Ukraine-EU trilateral ministerial meeting in Brussels on December 21 will find mutually acceptable solutions related to the implementation of the Ukraine-EU free trade agreement, which would help avoid restrictions in trade between Russia and Ukraine.

MOSCOW, Dec. 17 - President Vladimir Putin insisted Thursday that Russia has no regular troops in eastern Ukraine but admitted that some people have been carrying out military tasks there, AFP reported.

KIEV, Dec. 17 - Ukraine faces a looming debt default after the country's finance ministry said Thursday that the country cannot make a $3 billion debt due to Russia this weekend without violating a debt-restructuring deal with other international creditors, AP reported.