KIEV, Sept. 17 – Ukraine will be able to service its liabilities on value recovery instruments (VRI) issued under debt restructuring if Ukraine's real GDP growth exceeds 4-6% per year, but if the economic situation worsens, the country could carry out more debt restructuring, Finance Minister Natalie Jaresko has said.

KIEV, Sept. 17 - Ukraine's parliament on Thursday backed a crucial debt restructuring agreement that will save Kiev billions of dollars and keep the war-torn country from falling into an unmanaged default, AFP reported.

MOSCOW/KIEV, Sept. 15 – The self-declared Donetsk People's Republic has exchanged a new group of captives with the Ukrainian military, said the republic's first deputy prime minister Andrei Purgin.

KIEV, Sept. 15 - The European Union's decision to extend a preferential regime for Ukrainian exporters for one year will enable Ukraine to better prepare and conduct the necessary reforms, says Prime Minister Arseniy Yatseniuk.

KIEV, Sept. 15 - President Petro Poroshenko has said that the Association Agreement between Ukraine and the European Union will be implemented starting the first minute after its ratification, and in fact it is a program of reforms in the country.

KIEV, Sept. 16 – A presidential bill on the introduction of a special order of government in some districts of Donetsk and Luhansk regions for a period of three years, as well as the holding of early local elections in these regions on December 7 this year, has been registered in Parliament.

BRUSSELS, Sept. 16 - NATO believes Russia still has around 1,000 soldiers inside Ukraine despite some cuts in troop numbers since a ceasefire began there on Sept. 5, a NATO military officer said on Tuesday, Reuters reported.

PRAGUE, Sept. 16 - Slovak gas importer SPP reported a 25 percent reduction in gas supplies from Russia via Ukraine on Tuesday, the biggest drop since a decline in deliveries was first reported last week, Reuters reported.

KIEV, Sept. 16 – Russia threatened to send more troops to its newly-annexed territory of Crimea on Tuesday, after NATO began exercises in western Ukraine while Kiev's forces are fighting pro-Russian separatists in the east, Reuters reported.

KIEV, Sept. 16 - Ukrainian lawmakers on Tuesday ratified a landmark EU pact and adopted laws granting self-rule to the east in crucial votes that will shape the future of the splintered former Soviet state, AFP reported.

But Russia signaled it had no intention of backing down in the most serious East-West standoff since the Cold War, announcing it plans to boost its troop presence in annexed Crimea.