KIEV, March 14 – The fact that the initialing of the Association Agreement with the European Union has been shelved for far-fetched reasons is not Ukraine's fault, Prime Minister Mykola Azarov said in an interview with German newspaper Die Welt.

KIEV, March 15 – The authors of the law banning tobacco advertising are afraid that tobacco lobbyists could reverse the law.

"There are legal problems with the application of the law. I forecast that in coming year legal initiatives to amend the law will appear. We'll have to fight for the adjustments not to reverse it," a lawmaker and one of the authors of the law, Andriy Shevchenko (the BYT-Batkivschyna faction), said at a press conference in Kiev on Wednesday.

KIEV, March 14 – President Viktor Yanukovych has described as "unprofessional" cases of the Security Service of Ukraine summoning a group of scientists from the Sociology Institute of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine for interrogation, according to the press service of the president.

KIEV, March 15 - Standard & Poor's on Thursday lowered its outlook on Ukraine’s credit rating to negative from stable, reflecting significant fiscal and foreign debt refinancing risks.

It also reaffirmed Ukraine’s B+ foreign-currency debt assessment.

KIEV, March 15 - President Viktor Yanukovych on Thursday suffered a major setback when Parliament rejected his nomination for the position of human rights envoy, suddenly exposing his lack of majority control.

KIEV, March 14 – The grain harvest in 2011 will exceed 42 million tons, said Regions Party MP Hryhoriy Kaletnik, chairman of the Verkhovna Rada committee on agrarian policy and land relations, citing the Agriculture Policy and Food Ministry.

ISTANBUL, March 15 – There is no alternative to nuclear power for Ukraine, as well as for many other countries, Prime Minister Mykola Azarov has said.

KIEV, March 15 – Ukraine’s state agencies were ordered to create extra reserves of gasoline and diesel fuel to prevent shortages now that the government has recently restricted retail gasoline price increases.

KIEV, March 15 – Lawmakers summoned the head of Ukraine’s privatization agency for questioning on Friday after reports sparked controversy over who exactly had recently acquired the national phone company UkrTelecom.

KIEV, March 12 - Implementing reforms in Ukraine will be the central goal of his work as deputy prime minister in the country's newly formed government, said Sergiy Tyhypko.

"The implementation of reforms is more important to me than this post," Tigipko said at a news conference in Kiev on Friday.