Ukraine hopes to create a free trade area (FTA) with both the European Union and the Customs Union in 2013, Ukraine's Foreign Minister Leonid Kozhara has said.

"It is important to Ukraine to develop its relations with both the Eastern and Western countries. If we take at least such activities as Ukraine's external trade, today it [Ukraine's external trade] is estimated by around $60 billion with the Customs Union member states and by around $40 billion with the European Union," the minister said on the ICTV Channel on February 18.

"That's why both unions are very important to us, and this year Ukraine has a chance to have free trade with both the Customs Union and the EU," he said.