KIEV, March 17 – Ukraine’s security service SBU has handed evidence it collected in a probe into a controversial Gazprom-Naftogaz natural gas contract to the Prosecutor General’s Office for further investigation, Prime Minster Yulia Tymoshenko said Tuesday.

KIEV, March 17 – President Viktor Yushchenko on Tuesday nominated Oleh Shamshur, Ukraine’s ambassador to the U.S., as the country’s new foreign minister.

KIEV, March 16 – The National Bank of Ukraine has introduced a provisional administration at Kiev-based Rodovid Bank.

"From March 16, 2009, NBU introduced a provisional administration at OJSC Rodovid Bank. The introduction of provisionary administration is a precondition for the state's participation, jointly with Istil Group, in the additional capitalization of Rodovid Bank.

KIEV, March 16 – The deficit of Ukraine's national budget for 2009 will amount to UAH 19.4 billion, according to presidential secretariat experts, the secretariat's First Deputy Chairman Oleksandr Shlapak said at a briefing on Monday.

KIEV, March 16 - Oleksandr Shlapak, the first deputy head of the presidential secretariat, says talks with the International Monetary Fund on renewing the work of the fund's mission in Ukraine are likely to be completed within two or three weeks.

KIEV, March 17 – An application to hear a case on the transit of Russian natural gas through Ukraine submitted by Russia's OAO Gazprom to the Arbitration Institute of the Stockholm Chamber of Commerce regarding January's "gas war" has not been withdrawn.

KIEV, March 17 – Big changes in the hryvnia exchange rate to the U.S. dollar are not expected in the near future, despite the weakening of the U.S. currency to the euro on the foreign exchange markets, according to Anatoliy Shapovalov, first deputy head of the National Bank of Ukraine.

KIEV, March 17 – The activities of the Environment Protection Ministry in 2008 will be aimed at settling the issues of recycling waste and the standardization of emissions of large industrial companies according to the Kyoto protocol, Environment Protection Minister Heorhiy Filipchuk said at a press conference in Kiev.

KIEV, March 17 - The Ukrainian government will soon add to the forecast 2008 budget revenue earnings from selling the country’s greenhouse gas (GHG) quotas under the Kyoto protocol, a government official said Monday.

KIEV, March 17 - Ukraine may seek to hike tariffs it charges Russia for moving its natural gas to the European Union as part of a deal on 2009 gas prices, Energy and Fuel Minister Yuriy Prodan said Monday.