President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko predicts that with the approach of presidential election in Russia in 2018 the actions of the authorities of this country will acquire more aggressive forms.

"The Kremlin is preparing for the presidential election in 2018 and is becoming more aggressive in hiding its weaknesses. Russia has changed its tactics both in Crimea and Donbas, raising stakes by creating quasi-states. Russia continues to insist on absolutely unconstructive positions and its main task is to destabilize Ukraine," Poroshenko said during the 10th Kyiv Security Forum on Thursday.

According to him, Russia tried to play Poland off against Ukraine, starting with the incident with the burning of the Ukrainian flag in Poland, but the friendship between the two countries is much stronger than such provocative attempts.