Rail Travel news.

The press service of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs informed Ukrainian News of the meeting between Ukrainian Deputy Foreign Minister Valentyna Nalyvaichenko and her counterpart Katya Todorova in Sofia, Bulgaria, on Saturday, October 2.

The parties agreed to issue multivisas for up to 5 years, to abolish the requirement to present invitations to obtain visas, and to lower visa fees for tourists and businesspeople.

Holders of diplomatic and service passports will enjoy a visa-free regime.

As Ukrainian News earlier reported, President Leonid Kuchma and Bulgaria's President Georgi Parvanov in May discussed the liberalization of the visa regime between their countries.

Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych and Bulgarian Council of Ministers' head Simeon Saxe-Coburg-Gotha head earlier addressed prospects for Bulgaria's liberalizing visa regulations for Ukrainian citizens.

Before, the Bulgarian party had responded negatively to the question on the possibility of introduction with Ukraine of a visa regime similar to that one between Ukraine and Poland: free Bulgarian entry visas for Ukrainian citizens and visa-free entry into Ukraine for Bulgarian citizens.

Bulgaria intended to introduce electronic visas and service passports for Ukrainian citizens.

Introduction of visa regulations is a requirement of the European Union for participating countries in relation to neighboring countries, which are not members of the union.

Bulgaria introduced visas for Ukrainians on October 1, 2001, and, in response, Ukraine also introduce visas for Bulgarian citizens.

From April 1, 2004 to April 1, 2005, Bulgaria maintains free visas for tourist groups from Ukraine, who are required to pay only fees on processing visa applications, while children under 16 and people above 60 are exempt from those fees.

Bulgaria is ready to seal this liberalization of visa regime for tourists by making appropriate amendments into addenda to the agreement on mutual travel of Ukrainian and Bulgarian citizens.

Three Bulgarian consular services in Ukraine in Kyiv, Odesa and Donetsk are issuing visas for entry in Bulgaria.

A new orchestra in Ukraine has performed its first public concert at an underground venue. The BBC's Helen Fawkes was among a couple of hundred concert-goers who ventured into a salt mine for an unusual experience.

"Here's your hard hat and protective overcoat."

It's not what you expect to hear when you turn up to a classical music performance.

But then most orchestras don't perform more than 200 metres underground.

The Donbass symphony orchestra has just made its debut in a salt mine in eastern Ukraine.

This is a first for the former Soviet republic - and the setting is spectacular.

The walls and ceiling sparkle with white salt crystals. It's almost as if they have been carved out of ice.

Magical setting

Salt covers the entire floor, but it looks more a blanket of snow.

"I enjoy every second that I am in here" says Dimitry Tretyachenko who works at the mine in Soledar.

"The beauty comes from its history. This salt is the deposit of the ancient oceans that swept across this land 230 million years ago."

The venue - 100 kilometres from the city of Donetsk - was chosen by conductor Kurt Schmid.

"I was astounded when I heard the first few notes; they floated up to the ceiling and then came down slowly like a cloud. It was a great experience," the professor says.

For two hours, shaft chamber number 41 was filled with music.

The programme included Mozart, Strauss and Grieg's 'In the Cave of the Mountain King.'

Opera star and 'People's Artist of Ukraine', Victoria Loukianetz also performed.

No cocktail dresses

According to some experts, this chamber has better acoustics than many concert halls.

Instead of cocktail dresses and dinner jackets, most of the audience were dressed in winter coats.

The temperature underground was a chilly 14 degrees Celsius.

One of the aims of this unusual event is to create international interest in the Donbass Symphony Orchestra.

It is also a fitting venue as this part of Ukraine is famous for mining.

But it was a challenge logistically.

The lift painted in the Ukrainian colours of blue and yellow can only carry 22 people down the mineshaft at a time.

The orchestra, their instruments and the 200 members of the audience, meant it took hours to get everyone in place.
This isn't the first inventive event in the mine which is run by State Enterprise Association Artemsil.

Last year, a hot air balloon was flown through the chamber which is 30 metres high and 120 metres long.

Although this is no longer a working mine, millions of tonnes of salt is extracted from nearby pits.

Many of the 13,000 people who live in Soledar rely on this industry.

"It was so wonderful, I was so impressed by the concert," says Yelena Babkina who lives in the town.

"It made me feel like I was close to heaven."

Kiev-Astana. October 1. KAZINFORM. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Ukraine suggests Russia abrogation of registration of Ukrainian citizens entering the Russian territory, RBK informs. According to the director of the Consular service of the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry Nikolai Tochinsky, there are a lot of requests from Russia which the Consular Service of the Ukraine should satisfy." "The reply is to cancel registration of the Ukrainian citizens. Otherwise it will be difficult for both Consular services to obtain mutual understanding."
Tochinksy informed he had raised this issue at the bilateral talks with his Russian colleague 27 August. According to the acting Russian legislation, registration should be performed only if the citizen of the Ukraine resides in Russia not more than 3 days.
It is worth reminding that from the Law of the Russian Federation of 1993 On the Right of Citizens for Freedom of Movement, in relay to the institution of registration comes the registration of notifying character, what the Constitutional Court was repeatedly reminding local authorities.
However, as a part of the fight with terrorism, the State Duma plans to consider a series of laws in order to toughen the registration rules.

The "Day of Ukrainian Economy" has been market in the German city of Frankfurt-on-Maine.
According to information from the Ukrainian Foreign Affairs Ministry, the event was jointly organized by the German-Asian Economic Society and the Ukrainian consulate in Frankfurt-on-Maine.
The event was attended by representatives of about 80 leading regional companies, banks, chambers of commerce, as well as by Ukrainian entrepreneurs.
Reports about the current economic situation in Ukraine and the experiences of German firms on the Ukrainian market were delivered.
Ukraine's General Consul Yurii Yarmylko addressed the participants in the event.

Ukrainian authorities continue to deny plans to withdraw the Ukrainian navy from the Crimean port of Sevastopol, thereby leaving it fully in the hands of Russia's Black Sea Fleet.

In reality, JID has learned that outgoing President Leonid Kuchma has agreed to this as part of a deal with Russian President Vladimir Putin, whereby Ukraine will pull out of the port in return for Putin's agreement to back Kuchma's chosen successor, Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych, after Kuchma leaves office following presidential elections scheduled for 31 October.

During the Russian-Ukrainian summit in Sochi in August, Putin agreed to remove VAT on the export of oil to Ukraine. This means that Ukrainian petrol will cost 16 per cent less, representing a cost to the Russian budget of $800 million. The move was clearly intended as a gesture of support for Yanukovych's presidential candidacy and its announcement comes at the same time as his government has promised voters large student grants, as well as salary and pension increases.

Yanukovych has claimed that the removal of VAT would pave the way to a Russian-Ukrainian free trade zone in 2005, something that Kuchma has sought since 1994. The premier also stated that Ukraine and Russia will now only join the World Trade Organisation (WTO) together after the bilateral free trade zone has been created.

These steps are a strategic victory for Russia. Putin has always argued that states from the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) should co-ordinate their approach to entering the WTO and other international organisations.

Control of Sevastopol is now at the top of the Kremlin's agenda. In 1997 Ukraine and Russia signed a 20-year basing agreement dividing the former Soviet Black Sea Fleet and leasing four bays to Russia in Sevastopol (Sevastopolska, Pivdenna, Karantynna and Kozachya), while allowing the Ukrainian navy to use only one (Striletska). The Striletska bay cannot accommodate large vessels, meaning the Ukrainian frigate Hetman Sahaydachnyi, the command ship Slavutych and the frigate Sevastopol are based at the Sevastopolska bay, one of the four leased by Russia.