Kiev, Jan 24 - Ukraine boosted its production of crude steel by 5.7 percent to 35.3 million tonnes in 2011, said a report by the World Steel Association (WSA).

Ukraine is the world's eighth largest steel producer, according to the report.

The world's crude steel production reached 1.527 billion tonnes in 2011, increasing by 6.8 percent year on year, reported Xinhua citing a media report.

China was the world's top steel maker in 2011, with a production of 695.5 million tonnes.

Kiev  - The Greek national side was on Thursday attracting unprecedented attention among Ukrainian football professionals and amateurs alike, as the former Soviet republic counted down to the first of a two-game qualification play-off for the 2010 World Cup.

Ukraine's coaching staff had reviewed game tapes for the last eleven matches played by Greece, in preparation for the upcoming Saturday match in Athens, the authoritative Komanda sports newspaper reported.

Kiev - Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko on Tuesday said new flu infections had dropped by a factor of four, signaling, she said, dramatic success in controlling the disease's spread.

"All across Ukraine we have, at minimum, a four-fold drop (in flu infection rates) as compared with their peak from the second to the fourth of November," Tymoshenko said, in remarks reported by the Interfax news agency.

Kiev - The number of deaths and infections from flu were still rising in Ukraine on Monday, as government officials argued the outbreak was showing signs of stabilizing.

"Today we clearly had certain positive signs of a reduction in the flu infection rate," said Prime Minister  at a meeting with World Health Organisation officials. "We are seeing a positive trend."

Kiev  - Ukraine will pay off its most recent outstanding gas debt to Russia by drawing on a special use International Monetary Fund (IMF) account, government officials said Friday.

"I hope that by the end of today (Friday), we can inform you of a successful result in our work," said Valentyn Zemliansky, spokesman for state-owned Naftohaz Ukrainy, according to an Interfax news agency report. "Ukrnafta fulfills its obligations."

Kiev  - Ukraine will pay off its most recent outstanding gas debt to Russia by drawing on a special use International Monetary Fund (IMF) account, government officials said Friday.

"I hope that by the end of today (Friday), we can inform you of a successful result in our work," said Valentyn Zemliansky, spokesman for state-owned Naftohaz Ukrainy, according to an Interfax news agency report. "Ukrnafta fulfills its obligations."

Kiev - Ukrainian traffic police halted a Russian army lorry column reportedly loaded with cruise missiles, the Interfax news agency reported Tuesday.

The stand-off took place in the Black Sea port city of Sevastopol after Ukrainian officials stopped and ticketed Russian service personnel for operating military vehicles in an urban area without proper permits.

Kiev  - The death toll from a flu outbreak in Ukraine reached 70 on Tuesday, as shortages of medical supplies continued in the former Soviet republic.

The epicentre of sickness was the western Lviv province, where the officially given fatality count from flu infection was 30 people, according to an Interfax news agency report.

Other provinces hit by widespread severe flu infections, called by some Ukrainian officials an epidemic, included the Ternopil and Ivano-Frankivsk provinces, with a total of 28 deaths.

Kiev  - The death toll from a swine flu outbreak in Ukraine rose to 34 on Saturday, as the government announced new measures to control the spread of the virus.

Two of the victims were infants, Health Minister Vasyl Kniazevych told Channel 5 television.

As of Saturday morning, the flu was thought still to be limited in to the country's western provinces, but because of the number of suspected cases, a spread was likely, he said.

Kiev - A recently-instituted Ukrainian ban on public gatherings to halt a swine flu outbreak could place upcoming football matches with Inter Roma and the Greek national side in jeopardy, a senior government official said Friday.

"Everything that concerns football leagues, there will be discussions and certain consultations," said Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, at a Kiev press conference.

Ukrainian officials Tuesday morning announced the probable deaths of 11 persons to the swine flu virus.

Kiev - Ukraine suffered its first death from swine flu, as the government declared a massive quarantine and control effort to head off a possible epidemic, the Interfax news agency reported.

The victim was a man living in Ukraine's western Lviv region, said Health Ministry spokesman Roman Pavliv.

The government announcement one week after reports surfaced of as many as 30 deaths potentially caused by swine flu, all in Ukraine's western provinces.

Kiev - The one thing Ukrainian politicians and voters alike agree on these days is that Viktor Yushchenko, the once-popular pro- democracy leader, has next to no chance of winning a second term in the January presidential elections.

Today, after years of political stalemate, public expectations for significant change are dramatically lower than they were during the breathless days of the 2004 Orange Revolution.

But many political observers in the former Soviet republic are predicting that the elections, scheduled for January 17, will bring a measured degree of stability and a break from Ukraine's political deadlock.

Kiev - Former Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovich announced his candidacy for the Ukrainian Presidency on Friday, saying the ex- Soviet republic should remain neutral between Russia and western nations.

"I will give Ukraine a new foreign policy: Ukraine will be an unaligned state," Yanukovich said.

Reconciliation with Russia, and improved trade relations with the European Union, would be the top foreign policy priorities of a Yanukovich administration, he said.

Kiev - Ukrainian Communists and nationalists faced off in the capital Kiev on Wednesday, with police struggling to keep the hundreds of angry marchers apart.

More than 300 Communists defied a court order and gathered in Kiev's central Maidan square by early morning, flying red Communist flags next to a stage scheduled to be used by nationalists later in the day.

Banners pitched by the Communists read, "Fascism shall not pass!" and "Down with traitors to the Motherland!"

Kiev - World heavyweight boxing champion Vitali Klitschko deployed his size and weight in Ukrainian local politics Tuesday, leading a move to block what he called "illegal" operations of the Kiev City council.

Klitschko - the holder of belts from the International Boxing Federation, the World Boxing Organization and the International Boxing Organization - was at the head of a group of some 15 opposition councilmembers preventing the work of the City Council, physically blocking the majority of members from calling a Council meeting to order.

Kiev  - Three Ukrainians died and seven were hospitalised after eating poison mushrooms, the Interfax news agency reported.

The accident took place in the central Ukrainian city Kirovograd, after a man aged 78 gathered a substantial number of mushrooms in nearby woods, and gave the excess to neighbours.

The man and two others died within 24 hours of eating the mushrooms. Doctors were monitoring the seven survivors.

Kiev - Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko accused the country's government of funding Euro 2012 preparations at only a fraction of what is necessary, the Interfax news agency reported Friday.

"I am not satisfied," Yushchenko said at a meeting of the country's national Euro 2012 council. "National budget financing law is not being followed."

Kiev  - "Make no mistake, they're down there," whispered Kiev fisherman Maksim Gorbunov, as he searched for pike signs. "But a 'crocodile,' he's smart, think about it, thousands of people trying to hook him all those years and here he's still swimming around," Gorbunov said, with a trace of respect.

A lifetime Kiev resident Gorbunov, 58, spends most his days deftly placing lures of his own manufacture in proximity of reeds lining the Dnipro, Europe's fourth-largest river.

Gorbunov's target is the Esox Lucius, or Northern Pike, a carnivorous fish fairly common in Ukraine's waterways, despite industrial pollution and the increasing urbanisation of the former Soviet state.

Kiev  - Ukraine's troubled Olympic Stadium will not only meet all UEFA standards for Euro 2012, but be capable of hosting world-class athletics events, Korrespondent magazine reported Wednesday citing senior government officials.

Ongoing repairs to the sports complex in the capital Kiev will, once completed, put the stadium fully in accordance with rules set by the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF), said Yury Pavlenko, Ukraine's minister of sport.

Pavlenko made the remarks at a meeting of Ukraine's National Olympics Committee, attended among others by Soviet pole vaulting champion Sergey Bubka, now president of the Ukrainian Association of Light Athletics.

Kiev  - Ukrainian authorities on Friday blocked the entry of a Russian television cameraman, accusing him of helping produce a film containing "propaganda."