Russian President Vladimir Putin does not plan to meet Ukraine's president elect Petro Poroshenko when he attends D-Day anniversary events in France on Friday. (File photo)
Russian President Vladimir Putin does not plan to meet Ukraine's president elect Petro Poroshenko when he attends D-Day anniversary events in France on Friday, his spokesman told AFP.
"This question is not being worked upon," Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Monday when asked whether the leaders would meet in France.
Pro-Western billionaire and chocolate company owner Poroshenko, who won last month's presidential election in Ukraine, is also due to attend the commemorations.
He has been trying to arrange what would be the first meeting between Putin and a Ukrainian leader since Russia's seizure of Crimea sparked the worst East-West crisis since the Cold War.
Putin is set to meet British Prime Minister David Cameron at the events in Normandy to mark the Allied landings that proved a turning point in World War II.
On Thursday evening, he will have dinner with French President Francois Hollande at the Elysee Palace.