Russian and Ukrainian leaders to meet in Kiev

Russian President Vladimir Putin will pay a visit to Ukraine on March 19 to meet his Ukrainian counterpart Viktor Yushchenko. The two leaders are to discuss prospects of developing bilateral cooperation in politics, economy and humanitarian fields, as well as international issues of mutual interest, deputy head of press department of Russia's foreign ministry Dmitry Svistkov said. Russia's ambassador to Ukraine Viktor Chernomyrdin believes that the forthcoming visit will result in improvement of bilateral relations. 260 Russian companies work on the Ukrainian market and 152 Ukrainian firms work in Russia. According to Chernomyrdin, the major target of the two countries is to boost bilateral trade to USD50bn-USD60bn from USD20bn currently.