BRUSSELS, April 16 - NATO said on Wednesday it would send more ships, planes and troops to eastern Europe to reassure allies worried by Russia's annexation of Crimea but shied away from new permanent bases in the east as Poland wanted, Reuters reported.

KIEV, April 16 - Ukraine has launched a criminal investigation against Russia's biggest lender Sberbank for facilitating financing of pro-Russian separatists, acting Attorney General Oleh Makhnitsky said on Wednesday, Reuters reported.

Makhnitsky said the Attorney General's office was investigating 14 banks for helping to finance separatists who have taken over a number of buildings in eastern Ukraine, but he did not say whether all the investigations were criminal.

GENEVA, April 16 - Foreign ministers from East and West will meet in Geneva Thursday for what may be their last chance to try to defuse the Ukraine crisis.

MINSK, April 15 - During a phone conversation on Monday, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko and his Ukrainian counterpart Viktor Yanukovych reached an agreement to meet in May, the Belarusian president's press service announced.

KIEV, April 15 – President Viktor Yanukovych has set up a state commission on cooperation with the World Trade Organization and appointed Andriy Honcharuk, a presidential advisor and head of the presidential administration's main department for international relations, as head of the commission.

KIEV, April 15 – Ukraine will fulfill the obligations it undertook while joining the Council of Europe, President Viktor Yanukovych has said at a meeting with co-rapporteurs of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) Marietta de Pourbaix-Lundin and Mailis Reps.

DONETSK, April 16 – The body of a third miner who was trapped under the rubble on April 14 at the Chaikyne coal mine run by Makyivvuhillia state enterprise, was found, the local branch of the State Service of Mining Supervision and Industrial Safety in Donetsk region reported.

KIEV, April 16 - No Ukrainians were hurt in the two blasts in Boston, according to Yevhen Perebyinis, acting director of the Foreign Ministry's communications policy department.

DONETSK, April 16 – The fatal fire at the Vuhlehirska thermal power plant (TTP) was caused by the depressurization of the coal dust supply system, which triggered a leak and spontaneous ignition, Energy and Coal Industry Minister Eduard Stavytsky said.

KIEV, April 16 - Ukraine on Tuesday protested against "disrespectful" comments made by a top Russian TV host who compared chopping greens to the slaughter of Ukrainians by Soviet security services in the 20th century.