KIEV, June 17 – President Petro Poroshenko said that all branches of power in Ukraine should see work towards the country being granted a visa-free regime with the European Union as a priority.

KIEV, June 17 – Ukraine and Russia will hold a meeting between June 26 and June 29 to discuss natural gas prices and supply volumes, Energy and Coal Industry Minister Volodymyr Demchyshyn said Wednesday.

WASHINGTON, June 17 - The Russia-Ukraine conflict has no short term solution and is part of a fabricated conflict with the West to distract everyday Russians from corruption and incompetence, a prominent critic of Vladimir Putin said Wednesday, AFP reported.

KIEV, June 17 - Ukraine's trade unions have formed an association and are preparing to stage a national strike, according to lawmaker Sergei Kaplin of the Petro Poroshenko parliamentary faction.

KIEV, June 16 – President Petro Poroshenko has said that this week he will sign draft amendments to Ukraine's constitution to de-centralize powers, which he will then table in parliament.

DONETSK, June 16 – Hospitals in Sloviansk, where an armed standoff continues between the militia and a Ukrainian law enforcement contingent, are experiencing serious problems and all of them remain closed on Monday, said Olena Petriayeva, acting deputy director of the health department in the Donetsk regional state administration.

KIEV, June 16 - Ukraine is ready to let Russian militants lay down their arms and leave its territory, Secretary of Ukraine's National Security and Defense Council (NSDC) Andriy Parubiy says.

KIEV, June 16 – President Petro Poroshenko has said he hopes that the military actions on the east of the country will end this week.

"It is proposed to discuss the details of the president's peace plan, which should be offered this week. Moreover, according to the decisions, which National Security and Defense Council takes today, there will be proposals for a cease fire as a beginning to the implementation of the president's peace plan," he said opening the NSDC meeting on Monday.

WASHINGTON, June 17 – The United States is actively cooperating with the European Union on new sanctions against Russia, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland said.

BRUSSELS, June 17 - The European Union's top negotiator in the gas price row between Russia and Ukraine is working to bring the two sides together again before mid-July, but said a weekend of bloodshed in Ukraine had made the task far harder.