WASHINGTON, Dec. 23 - Ukraine will soon have more lethal American-made weapons, including deadly Javelin anti-tank missiles, to help it fight Russian-backed separatists, The Associated Press reported Saturday.

KIEV, Dec. 26 –U.S. President Barack Obama has signed the U.S. budget for the needs of national defense for 2017, increasing aid to the Ukraine security sector to $350 million.

KIEV, Dec. 25 - Ukraine called in Israeli ambassador to Kiev for clarification after Israel’s decision to cancel a scheduled visit by Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman over a vote in the UN Security Council, The Jerusalem Post reported.

KIEV, Dec. 23 – The meeting of the Board of the International Monetary Fund which will consider granting Ukraine the next tranche under the EFF program may be held in late January, Finance Minister Oleksandr Danyliuk said.

KIEV, Dec. 23 – If presidential elections in Ukraine were held in the near future, 17.7% of the voters would vote for Batkivschyna party leader Yulia Tymoshenko, 13.5% for incumbent President Petro Poroshenko, and 10.4% for Opposition Bloc parliamentary faction leader Yuriy Boiko, as is evident from a poll of 2,000 respondents the Rating sociological survey service conducted in Ukraine on December 8-18.

KIEV, Dec. 26 – The United Nations International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea in early 2017 will start considering Ukraine's claim against the Russian Federation alleging violation of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea by Moscow.

KIEV, Dec. 24 – Hammering out a joint, concerted approach on the forming of volume and tools for external financial assistance is a top priority for Ukraine now, while debt restructuring is not on the agenda today, First Deputy Finance Minister Ihor Umansky said.

KIEV, Dec. 25 – Ukraine's parliament has passed a law to extend the powers of the National Security and Defense Council and its secretary.

The law was supported by 253 MPs.

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

NEW YORK (UN), Dec. 25 – Stephane Dujarric, spokesperson for the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, has urged the warring sides in eastern Ukraine to take positive steps to help resolve their conflict.

"Again, we would urge both parties involved to focus on positive steps and recommit themselves to a political solution," he said at a press briefing on Wednesday, answering a question about the total cutoff of power supply from Ukraine alleged by the Crimean authorities.

MOSCOW, Dec. 25 - Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Ukraine's pursuit of NATO membership posed a danger to European security and that the West was using Kiev's bid to join the Atlantic alliance as a way to fuel confrontation between Russia and Ukraine, Reuters reported.