Kiev - Russian President Vladimir Putin arrived in Ukraine for an official visit on Thursday, as energy officials from the two former Soviet republics signed a natural gas deal. The Russian prime minister flew to the Ukrainian Black Sea resort city Yalta for two days of official meetings, including scheduled one-on-one talks with Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko.
An energy agreement pushed by Putin and Tymoshenko was made public on Thursday as well, with officials from Ukraine's natural gas monopoly Naftohaz Ukrainy announcing the signing of a contract with the Russian natural gas monopoly Gazprom setting out specific volumes of fuel to be shipped through Ukraine to European consumers in 2010.
Planned volumes were practically unchanged from 2009, according to a Naftohaz Ukrainy statement.
The late 2008 absence of a signed delivery contract between Russia and Ukraine sparked a five-day Russian blockade of all natural gas shipments into Ukraine's pipeline network, spiking January retail natural gas prices as far away as Spain.
Talks in the Tsarist-era Livadia Palace between Russian and Ukrainian delegations on Thursday and Friday would focus on scientific and technological exchange, the Interfax news agency reported.
Other planned discussion topics included cooperative measures in controlling a regional flu outbreak, and reducing the effect of the international financial crisis.
Tymoshenko on Wednesday said she was keen to push joint development of the An-70 military transport aircraft with Putin, citing Russia's air force as a potential buyer for the plane.
A joint meeting of CIS state prime ministers including Putin and Tymoshenko was scheduled for Friday.
Ukrainian media in recent months has reported a warming in relations between Putin and Tymoshenko's government, as the Ukrainian prime minister positioned herself as open to practical talks with Moscow, in contrast to Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko's anti- Kremlin rhetoric.
Tymoshenko, currently campaigning to oust Yushchenko from office in Ukraine's January presidential elections, has criticized Yushchenko for antagonising the Kremlin with repeated polemics on language and 20th century history, which according to her needlessly complicated relations between the two countries.
