KIEV, January 18 (AVN) - Russian Defence Minister Igor Sergeyev arrived in Kiev on Thursday for meetings with Ukraine's military and political leadership, a spokesman for the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry told the Military News Agency.
Sergeyev is expected to hold talks with President Leonid Kuchma before the latter's departure for Germany, the spokesman said. The Russian minister will also meet his Ukrainian counterpart Alexander Kuzmuk, chairman of the Verkhovna Rada (parliament) Ivan Plyushch, and Secretary of the National Security and Defence Council Yevgeny Marchuk.
The parties are planning to discuss issues related to strengthening of trust and European security, as well as Russian Black Sea Fleet problems in the Crimea and prospects of bilateral military and military-technical co-operation.
According to some sources, Sergeyev is willing to attend a meeting of his school's 1955 graduates in the village of Makeyevka in the Donetsk region on Saturday. Kuzmuk is likely to accompany the Russian minister.