KIEV, March 16 - Leaders and representatives from eight parties, which are part of the BYT faction and the Our Ukraine-People's Self-Defense faction, have signed an agreement on the creation of a united opposition.

KIEV, March 16 - Ukraine is preparing a proposal for the European Union to get involved in modernization of Ukrainian natural gas transportation network, Prime Minister Mykola Azarov said Tuesday.

KIEV, March 17 – Progress in talks with the International Monetary Fund, certain positive changes in the pace of some macroeconomic figures and the availability of a sufficient amount of foreign currency at the National Bank of Ukraine will protect the hryvnia exchange rate from excessive surges in the short term, according to Valeriy Lytvytsky, the head of the NBU's group of advisors to the governor.

KIEV, March 17 – Total industrial output in Ukraine in January-February shrank by 32.8% year-on-year, said Valeriy Lytvytsky, the head of the National Bank of Ukraine's group of advisors to the chairman.

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.