Kiev - Twenty seamen held hostage for three months by Somali pirates arrived in Ukraine on Friday to be met by President Viktor Yushchenko.

The 17 Ukrainian, 2 Russian, and single Latvian seaman landed at Kiev's Borispyl airport after an eight-hour flight from Keyna.

Their ship, the MS Faina, docked in the Kenyan port Mombasa on Thursday. Pirates operating from Somalia's Puntland coastline had held the Faina's hostage since September 25.

Yushchenko and crew relatives met the seamen as they disembarked onto the runway. Some of the Ukrainians were wearing US-military issue fatigues.

Kiev  - Ukraine President Viktor Yushchenko on Wednesday answered questions from a Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa reporter in an exclusive interview. Following are Q&A excerpts:

Q: Will there be a default in Ukraine?

A: The real question is, how strong will our budgetary policy be? How realistic will it be? How ambitious will it be? And critically, will the budget be balanced? How much will we be able to make a strong, measured policy? That will determine whether or not we can service our obligations.

Kiev - Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko rejected as "illegal" parliament's sacking Monday of the head of the country's national bank, marking a worsening political deadlock in the former republic.

Ukraine's national legislature, the Verhovna Rada, in a morning session voted no confidence in Volodymyr Stelmakh, director of the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU), citing a fall by nearly half in the value of the Ukrainian currency the hryvna since November, a shrinking economy, and rising government deficits.

Kiev  - A spokesman for Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko on Monday said a parliamentary election set for mid-December was "on hold," marking the govermnent's first official admission the vote would not be as scheduled.

"The order on the new elections has been placed on hold, but (the vote) has not been cancelled," said Iryna Bannikova, at a Kiev press conference.

Yushchenko dissolved a hung parliament in October, ordering new elections for December 15. Opponents within the administration and the legislature torpedoed the Ukrainian leader's initiative by refusing to authorize government financing for the polling, or prepare voter lists.

Kiev/Moscow - Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko set December 7 as the date for fresh elections in an announcement on his website on Thursday.

Yushchenko dissolved parliament in a speech broadcast Wednesday evening and called for fresh elections.

Following the collapse of the pro-Western coalition of Yushchenko's party and Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko's bloc, it is hoped that fresh elections will offer a way out of the current political impasse.

Ukrainians last voted for a new parliament as recently as September 2007.