Ukraine in Arabic | Ukrainian and Russian presidents made a phone conversation
KYIV/Ukraine in Arabic/ Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko had a telephone conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin last night, the press service of the Ukrainian president has reported.
Presidents discussed the steps on reconciliation of the crisis in southeastern Ukraine and natural gas supplies.
"Possible steps on facilitating peaceful settlement of the situation in southeastern Ukraine have been discussed," the statement said, adding that "mutual readiness to continue exchanging views, including on the gas issue, on the sidelines of the October 16-17 ASEM [Asia-Europe Meeting] forum in Milan has been confirmed."
Earlier, President Poroshenko said he was anticipating hard, but successful talks with Putin. The last meeting between the two leaders took place in Minsk, the capital of Belarus, on August 26 at talks that also involved heads of Russia’s Customs Union partner nations Belarus and Kazakhstan, along with EU officials.
Russian natural gas producer Gazprom cut supplies to Ukraine in June after Kiev failed to pay gas debts which Russia says have now reached more than $5 billion.
Ukraine faces a possibility of energy shortages this winter if no deal is reached, risking a replay of the disruptions to Europe's gas supplies seen in 2006 and 2009. Europe receives a third of its gas needs from Russia, and around half of it is pumped via Ukraine.
Officials from Russia and the European Commission, which is mediating the talks, say a deal could be near. Poroshenko said on Saturday he hoped for "significant progress" on the issue during the talks on Milan.
Efforts to reach agreement have been complicated by the conflict in eastern Ukraine. Ukraine and the West accuse Russia of providing pro-Russian separatists there with extra troops and weapons, a charge Moscow denies.
The conflict has caused the worst standoff in Moscow's relations with the West since the Cold War, with the United States and the European Union having imposed sanctions on Russia over the crisis.
Deep divisions remained between Washington and Moscow after talks between U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Paris on Tuesday.