KIEV, Dec. 25 – The recent explosions in Odessa and Kharkiv aim at escalating tensions in Ukraine, in the opinion of the Ukrainian interior ministry advisor Zorian Shkiryak.

KIEV, Dec. 26 - Parliament Speaker Volodymyr Hroisman on Thursday signed the law expanding the powers of the National Security and Defense Council and its secretary.

A total of 253 MPs voted for the amendments.

Earlier, the parliament ordered its committees to improve the bill on December 23. A total of 302 deputies voted for that decision.

KIEV, Dec. 26 – Summing up the results of the "Concentration 2014" military and economic training program, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has ordered the protection of strategic facilities and critical infrastructure to be enhanced.

TBILISI, Dec. 26 - Georgian assistance to Ukraine has been exclusively humanitarian, Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili said.

KIEV, Dec. 28 – The law on Ukraine's state budget for 2012 does not include enough spending on development projects and the mechanisms of the transparent allocation of funds, First Deputy head of Ukraine's Presidential Administration Iryna Akimova said.

MOSCOW Dec. 28 - Ukraine, which had to borrow money from a Russian bank to cover part of its November bill for deliveries of natural gas the from Russia's Gazprom, has now paid the bill in full, Interfax reported on Wednesday, citing the export monopoly.

NEW YORK, Dec. 28 – The United States again expressed concern about democracy and rule of law in Ukraine after a Kiev court of appeals upheld the conviction of opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko.

KIEV, Dec. 27 – The warm weather spell in December has had a positive impact on winter grain crops in Ukraine, according to Tetiana Adamenko, the head of the agrarian meteorology department at the Ukrainian Weather Center.

KIEV, Dec. 27 – Most Ukrainians have welcomed the declaration by Ukraine of its non-aligned status and the signing of a number of agreements with Russia on cooperation in the leading industries, according to a survey conducted by the Sofia Center for Social Studies on December 16-22.

KIEV, Dec. 27 – The 15.1% fall of the Ukrainian economy through 2009 will be finally overcome in 2012, according to Prime Minister Mykola Azarov.

"If everything would develop under an optimistic scenario, [GDP growth in 2011] would be 6%, and in 2012 we would reach the pre-crisis indicators," he said at a press conference in Kiev on Monday.