MOSCOW, Dec. 23 – The approach by Brussels and Kiev at the talks with Russia on the issue of creating a free trade area (FTA) between the European Union and Ukraine has not been economic, but exclusively political, Russian Minister of Economic Development Alexei Ulyukayev said.

KIEV, Dec. 24 - Ukraine is responding to Moscow's food embargo with "mirror sanctions" of its own that will take effect on January 1, Prime Minister Arseniy Yatseniuk announced Thursday, AFP reported.

KIEV, Dec. 24 – Parliament has supported a bill submitted by the government authorizing it to take countermeasures in foreign trade in response to Russia's discriminatory actions in relation to Ukraine.

KIEV, Dec. 24 – The Ukrainian Antimonopoly Committee has determined preliminarily, following an antitrust investigation, that Russia's Gazprom occupies a monopolistic position on the Ukrainian gas transportation services market and regularly violated the terms and conditions of its contract with Naftogaz Ukrainy in 2009-2015.

KIEV, Dec. 24 – The Ukroboronprom State Concern saw UAH 1.626 billion in net profit in January-September 2015 compared to UAH 348 million of loss in 2014, the concern said on its website.

KIEV, Dec. 24 – Households, municipal heating supply companies and budget-funded organizations cut natural gas consumption by 21% or 4.2 billion cubic meters in January-November 2015 year-over-year.

KIEV, Dec. 25 – The opportunity for foreign pharmaceutical producers to take part in medicine public procurement using budget funds directly, without mediators, is the key benefit of the transfer of public procurement to international organizations, Oleksandra Ustinova, a board member of the Anticorruption Action Center, told Interfax-Ukraine.

KIEV, Dec. 24 - Kazakhstan supports Ukraine in the situation with the Russian food embargo and assured that it will not use similar measures, Ukrainian Finance Ministry Trade Representative Natalia Mykolska said.

KIEV, Dec. 24 – Parliament has passed a compromise bill amending the Tax Code (No. 3688) on provision of the balance of budget revenues in 2016, which envisages setting 22% single social security tax and revoking the 3.6% single social security tax imposed on salaries of employees, starting from 2016.

KIEV, Dec. 25 - The Ukrainian parliament on Friday adopted a budget for next year with a deficit of 3.7 percent of GDP, crucial for unlocking much needed aid from the International Monetary Fund and Western countries.