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- State revenue in Ukraine plummeted in January due to a wide-reaching economic slowdown, a senior government official said Monday.

Government income was down 80 per cent as compared to 2008, with no relief in sight, said Roman Besmertny, senior economic advisor to Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko.

The single-month drop in real official collections was the worst since Ukraine's years of hyper-inflation in the early 1990s, he said.

Kiev- Siphoning of Russian gas moving to Europe by Ukraine was not taking place, a European Union official said Tuesday.

"We do not have any information that Ukraine performed unsanctioned siphoning of (Russian natural gas earmarked for Europe) after December 31," said Andris Piebalgs, the European Union's Energy Commissioner, at a Kiev press conference.

Piebalgs' remarks came on the first day of a resumption of Russian natural gas shipments to Ukraine, cut off at the end of 2008 over a series of Russo-Ukrainian disputes, among them Russian allegations that Ukraine had stolen Russian gas in the past.

Moscow - The Russian gas monopoly Gazprom began Tuesday to pump gas to Europe into a Ukrainian transit pipeline for the first time since a nearly two-week supply blockade began, the Russian Interfax news agency reported.

The supply resumed after both countries laid aside a bitter dispute over fees and the illegal siphoning of gas, which had cut European countries off from energy supplies in the middle of a harsh winter.

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Brussels  - The European Union issued a cautious reaction Sunday to the news that Russia and Ukraine had reached a deal on resuming gas supplies to Europe.

"The (European) Commission welcomes the announcement in Moscow of Prime Minister (Vladimir) Putin and Prime Minister (Yulia) Tymoshenko, and in particular the announcement that gas transit to Europe could be resumed on Monday," the EU's executive arm in Brussels said in a statement.

"But we have seen many false dawns in this dispute, and the 'test' in this case is whether or not the gas flows to Europe's consumers. Until that point, the wait goes on for Europe," the statement said.