Ukraine is grateful to Turkey for non-recognition of Crimea as part of Russia and for support for President Petro Poroshenko's peace plan to resolve the situation in Donbas, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin has said.

"We are very grateful to our friends for showing their political support and solidarity, for their unambiguous and consistent position on the territorial integrity of Ukraine, and for the provision of humanitarian assistance by the Turkish side," Klimkin said at a joint press conference with Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu in Kyiv on Monday.

Cavusoglu, in turn, said that Ukraine was now facing the greatest challenges since independence.

"In these difficult times, Turkey, together with Ukraine, supports in every way the territorial integrity of Ukraine, including Crimea. Turkey did not, does not and will not recognize the illegal annexation of Crimea," he said.

Cavusoglu also said that Ukraine and Turkey would hold a high-level strategic group meeting in the first quarter of 2015.

"The main purpose of our meeting today is to prepare for a meeting of the high-level strategic group meeting, which is scheduled for the first quarter of 2015," he said.

He also said that the question of preparations for the signing of a free trade agreement between Ukraine and Turkey had been considered during the talks.

"We believe that the signing of this agreement will bring our trade to new horizons. We focus on the fact that the trade turnover of $ 6.7 billion in 2013 is below our potential," Cavusoglu said.