There is a preliminary agreement with Russia over the return to Ukraine of its citizens Yuriy Soloshenko and Hennadiy Afanasiev, who were jailed in Russia, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said.

"I am far from giving promises or naming many surnames. I can only say that with our preliminary agreement, we can expect Afanasiev and Soloshenko's return home," he said in an interview with the Inter television channel, a preliminary extract from which was aired on the channel on Sunday evening.

On May 27 Ukraine's Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin said Soloshenko and Afanasiev's release was a matter of the coming weeks.

"I very much hope that the liberation of Soloshenko who, as you know, is very sick and, certainly, Hennadiy Afanasyev will be the next stage. I believe this is a question of the next few weeks," the minister said on the One Plus One television channel last Friday.

At the same time, he noted that it is too soon to talk about the terms of release because the talks are ongoing.

Afanasyev was charged with the creation of a terrorist group in Crimea and sentenced in Russia in 2015 to seven years in a maximum-security penitentiary as a suspected abettor to Ukrainian film director Sentsov.

In August 2015, the North Caucasus District Military Court in Rostov-on-Don sentenced Sentsov to 20 years in a maximum-security penitentiary for creating a terrorist group in Crimea.

On October 14, 2015, the Moscow City Court found former general director of the Poltava Zarya state plant Soloshenko, 73, guilty of espionage and sentenced him to six years in a maximum-security penitentiary.