KIEV, May 26 – Strong international pressure continued to build on President Viktor Yanukovych on Thursday in response to a brief detention of opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko by the authorities earlier this week.

KIEV, May 26 – President Viktor Yanukovych on Thursday set a deadline of the end of July for the government to hike utilities tariffs, warning that the failure to comply would force him to take action.

KIEV, May 26 – Russia still wants to see Ukraine in the Customs Union of Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan and a single economic space Sergei Glazyev, the secretary at large of the Customs Union, has said.

KIEV, May 26 – New Ukrainian-Russian agreements being prepared by the Ukrainian authorities will lead to the loss of a considerable part of Ukraine's strategic property, opposition BYT leader Yulia Tymoshenko has claimed.

KIEV, May 26 – Ukraine should cut its budget deficit this year in order to reduce external borrowing and to win confidence from foreign investors, Deputy Prime Minister Serhiy Tyhypko said Wednesday.

KIEV, May 26 – Olekskiy Pukach, a former top police officer alleged to have killed journalist Heorhiy Gongadze in 2000, said investigators must question “senior officials” in connection with the case, Ukrayinska Pravda reported Wednesday, citing a source.

KIEV, May 26 – The People’s Committee for Defense of Ukraine, the country’s opposition body, on Wednesday urged the International Monetary Fund to postpone lending to the government until it launches economic reforms and improves democracy.

KIEV, May 26 – President Viktor Yushchenko jointly with representatives of gambling business plans this week to draw up and submit to Parliament proposals on a law that temporarily bans the gambling business, Yushchenko said to representatives of gambling business demonstrating near Ukrainian House in Kiev on Monday.

KIEV, May 26 – The hryvnia exchange rate at present is balanced and will retain its stability in the near future, said Anatoliy Shapovalov, the first deputy governor of the National Bank of Ukraine.

KIEV, May 26 – The government and the National Bank of Ukraine must act quickly to recapitalize the banking sector to boost credit and to stimulate economic growth, former Finance Minister Viktor Pynzenyk said Tuesday.

Pynzenyk, who resigned earlier this year following a dispute with Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, faulted the government for delaying the recapitalization, while spending money on sectors less affected by the crisis.