Putin And Poroshenko to Discuss Ukraine Peace on Friday

Russian President, Vladimir Putin, is going to hold talks with his Ukrainian counterpart, Petro Poroshenko, on Friday. Kremlin said that the agenda of the meeting that is scheduled to be held in Italy will include natural gas supply related dispute between the countries.

Kremlin issued a statement last Tuesday that said, that the presidents of the countries had spoken over the phone. They reportedly discussed on steps to bring back peace in eastern Ukraine. Their meeting next week is going to hold critical discussion between the conflicted countries. The issues to be discussed in the meeting includes both gas dispute and Ukraine conflict. Both the national leaders are scheduled to attend a summit in Milan, where Asian and European leaders will come together on October 16 and 17, Reuters reported.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry earlier said that Russia had started pulling back its troops from Ukraine. However, Kerry warned that Russia would have to do a lot more to ease up the international sanctions against the country. Kerry had a discussion with Sergei Lavrov, his Russian counterpart. After the talk which ran for more than three hours, Kerry put forth a number of conditions for Russia so that the sanctions could be lifted. "And at this point, many of them are happening now. The troops are pulling back," Kerry said, "the heavy equipment still has to be pulled back and the border is yet to be properly monitored and secured," Yahoo News reported.

Russian company Gazprom discontinued gas supplies to Ukraine in June after Kiev had not paid gas debts. According to Russia, the debts have now exceeded more than $5 billion. Ukraine has the possibility to suffer from energy shortages in winter if no settlement takes place between the neighbouring countries. Around one third of Europe's gas comes from Russia that pumps nearly half of it via Ukraine.

The conflict between the countries has so far caused 3,400 lives. While Ukraine continues to show toughness on the issue, its new defence minister has also spoke about building an army large enough to counter Russian forces. Putin called back 17,600 Russian soldiers from the Ukraine border on Sunday.

Contact the writer: s.mukhopadhyay@ibtimes.com.au