Kiev

Russian energy giant Gazprom has warned that it will stop supplies to Ukraine if it does not pay its debt.

Alexei Miller, its Executive Director, explained Ukraine currently owes USD 1.89 B and assure his company "cannot supply gas for free", he was reported by Businessweek as saying.

The EU will unilaterally open the European market for Ukrainian goods and producers.

Brussels has also approved the decision to sign a political part of the Association Agreement with Kiev "within nearest time", Ukrainian Government's website has informed.

Ukraine's neighbor Romania has offered to mediate between Kiev and Moscow, with the country's President Traian Basescu proposing to lead those negotiations.

A decree making Crimea part of the Russian Federation was voted in the regional Parliament on Thursday.

Russian armed forces are "the only lawful armed force on the territory", Crimea Deputy PM Rustam Termigaliev was reported as saying.

Foreign Minister Kristian Vigenin’s trip to Ukraine on Tuesday has sparked controversy among MPs, with MPs from the ruling Bulgarian Socialist Party and the ethnic Turkish Movement for Rights and Freedoms expressing shock.

The MPs said they did not understand whether it was Bulgaria’s position or his own stance on the Ukrainian crisis that the minister was representing.

The referendum on the status of Crimеa was once more moved to an earlier date and will be held on March 16. 

According to Crimea's first deputy-prime minister Rustam Temirgaliev, Crimeans will be asked  to decide if the autonomous republic stays part of Ukraine or joins Russia. 
There will be two questions on the ballots. 

Tension has been rising in the eastern Ukrainian city of Donetsk as pro-Russian demonstrators seized a government administration building on Wednesday.

Some of the activists barged through the police protecting the area and entered the government building by smashing windows and entrances, Euronews reports. The Ukrainian flag on the roof was replaced by a Russian one.

Lawmakers in Ukraine have voted in favour of trying the fugitive ousted President Viktor Yanukovych at The Hague's International Criminal Court (ICC).

It is unclear whether the ICC would accept a case from Ukraine, as the country is not a signatory to the Rome Convention which established the institution.

No details on foreign financial assistance to Ukraine

KIEV -- Russia should be a good neighbor to Ukraine and allow it to move forward in the direction that is has chosen, said Catherine Ashton.

The prospects of financial assistance to Ukraine are to be discussed on Tuesday in Washington between UK Foreign Secretary William Hague and his counterpart John Kerry.