Luxembourg - The European Union has "every reason to be worried" about Ukraine's political deadlock and economic crisis, EU foreign ministers meeting in Luxembourg said Monday. The EU is to organize a fact-finding mission to Ukraine aimed at establishing how the EU can help the country sliding further into the abyss, German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier told journalists after talks with EU counterparts.

Kiev  - Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko on Friday demanded Poland's government act to reduce massive lorry queues on their border, the Interfax news agency reported.

Yushchenko, in a message to Poland's Foreign Ministry, called the current waits of more than 24 hours for lorry drivers attempting to enter Poland due to customs formalities "unacceptable."

Ukraine's border police will monitor the situation and will report to the president "personally," according to the report.

Kiev - An unidentified gas in an abandoned Ukrainian bomb shelter killed three people and left five others hospitalised, the Interfax news agency reported Thursday. The accident took place on the outskirts of the Black Sea port city Sevastopol, on the site of World War Two-era fortifications.

Two of the dead were a pair of youths who had broken into a bomb shelter in Sevastopol's Malakhov Kurgan suburb during the night.

Kiev - The parliament of the Ukrainian province of Crimea on Wednesday voted against allowing planned US naval manoeuvres in the Black Sea, the Interfax news agency reported.

The Crimean parliament in voted 61 in favour of a motion declaring the US Navy-led "Sea Breeze" 2009 manoeuvres "impermissable" - laying the legal grounds for a possible ban.

Nine members of Crimea's 91-member parliament opposed the motion, whilst the national government in Kiev has signalled it expects the exercise to go ahead as planned.

Kiev  - The International Monetary Fund (IMF) agreed to greenlight an additional 2.8 billion dollars assistance loan to Ukraine, IMF officials in Kiev said on Friday.

An IMF mission visiting the former Soviet republic recommended Ukraine receive the badly-needed credit after meetings with the country's government.

At least half of the money to be advanced by the IMF will go towards balancing Ukraine's budget, mostly by helping service foreign-issue bonds, Ukraine Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko said, according to an Interfax news agency report.

Kiev - The International Monetary Fund (IMF) should give Ukraine an additional 2.8 billion dollars assistance loan, Fund managers said on Friday.

An IMF mission visiting the former Soviet republic recommended Ukraine receive the badly-needed credit after meetings with the country's governmental leadership.