PARIS, Jan 30 - France and Australia announced Monday plans to jointly produce and send several thousand 155-millimeter artillery shells to Ukraine, starting in the coming weeks, The Associated Press reported.

SEOUL, Jan 30 - NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg on Monday called for South Korea to provide direct military support to Ukraine, saying Kyiv is in urgent need of weapons to fight off the prolonged Russian invasion.

KYIV, Jan 30 - Fighting remained largely deadlocked Monday in eastern Ukraine where Russian shelling killed five civilians over the past day, according to Ukrainian officials, as the warring sides sized up their needs for renewed military pushes expected in coming weeks.

KYIV, Jan 28 – The National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) raised its current account deficit forecast to 1.1% of GDP, or $2.3 billion from 1% of GDP, or $1.9 billion in 2021 due to record-high levels of reinvested earnings and dividend payments.

BRUSSELS, Jan 28 – The United States and the EU are working on alternative gas supplies to EU countries in case that Russia attacks Ukraine, U.S. President Joe Biden and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said in a joint statement released on Friday.

KYIV, Jan 28 - President Joe Biden said Friday he would be sending American troops to Eastern Europe as the threat of a Russian invasion of Ukraine continues to weigh on the U.S. and its allies, Bloomberg reported.

LONDON, Jan 29 - Britain is considering making a major NATO deployment as part of a plan to strengthen Europe's borders in response to Russia massing troops on the border with Ukraine, the government said on Saturday, Reuters reported.

WASHINGTON, Jan 30 - Russian President Vladimir Putin could possibly invade Ukraine at any point now, and that there are a number of methods at his disposal to do it, Pentagon press secretary John Kirby said Sunday.

BERLIN, Jan 27 – Germany will seek to continue talks with the U.S. over the Nord Stream 2 natural gas pipeline and asked Washington to lift sanctions that have been imposed to stop the pipeline, Reuters reported.

KYIV, Jan 28 – The International Monetary Fund extended for 10 days talks with Ukraine on whether to resume $5 billion stand-by loan after the government’s recent decision to cut natural gas prices, Finance Minister Serhiy Marchenko said Thursday.