The presidents of Russia and Ukraine are to meet at a business breakfast in Milan on Friday, with the fragile peace in Ukraine and gas supplies to Europe expected to dominate. The summit carries hopes of further progress in resolving the crisis, reports GHN based on RT.
The breakfast, organized by Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi is scheduled for Friday, on the sidelines of EU-Asia (ASEM) summit, which starts on Thursday.
"At the request of the European side, there was a phone-in session on the extremely important meeting in Milan tomorrow, where the leaders of the European states and the European Union together with me, the president of Ukraine, will hold the talks with the leadership of the Russian Federation concerning extremely important issues: establishment of peace in Ukraine, securing the peace process, development of the political process, de-escalation of the situation in the east of the country," President Poroshenko said ahead of the meeting.
Poroshenko stressed that "the whole world has high expectations" of the meeting between the two leaders.
Yury Ushakov, the Russian President's aide, has confirmed that there will be a meeting between Poroshenko and Vladimir Putin, which will be also "attended by [German Chancellor Angela] Merkel, [French President Francois] Hollande, [Ukrainian President Petro] Poroshenko, [British Prime Minister David] Cameron, as well as apparently [European Council President Herman van] Rompuy and [European Commission President Jose Manuel] Barroso."
A bilateral meeting between Putin and Poroshenko is not planned yet. But he did not rule out that leaders of the two countries will agree on it at a meeting in a larger format, Ushakov said.
For the European side negotiations in Milan are also an encouraging sign as natural gas supplies to Europe will be on the agenda. A long-running dispute over gas sales is one of the main concerns for the European states, which are potentially facing energy shortage as cold winter is approaching.
It now depends on supplies agreement between Russia and Ukraine. About 15 percent of Europe's total energy supply runs from Russia through Ukraine. In June, Gazprom shut off supplies to Ukraine, but continue to deliver to European neighbors.
On September 26, Russia, Ukraine and the EU held three-way gas negotiations in Berlin, where a so-called "winter plan" was discussed. According to it Ukraine will pay Gazprom $2 billion as part of its gas debt by the end of October and an additional $1.1 billion in advance payment by year's end for 5 billion cubic meters of gas, the EU Energy Commissioner Gunther Oettinger said.
However, no final documents have been sealed, as price and payment schedule remain the stumbling blocks in the negotiations.
