Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has instructed a deputy head of the presidential administration to leave for Berlin on June 1 to hold talks on preparations for a meeting in the Normandy format at the highest level.

"We very strongly expect that the decision on peacekeepers will be adopted in the near future, and we agreed in Aachen that we will try to organize a summit in the Normandy format as soon as possible. On this occasion, at my request, the deputy head of the presidential administration will leave for Berlin on June 1 for respective negotiations," Poroshenko said at a meeting with German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier in Kyiv on Tuesday.

Foreign policy issues in Ukraine's Presidential Administration are supervised by Deputy Head of the Presidential Administration Kostiantyn Yeliseyev.

Poroshenko said Steinmeier and he had discussed the implementation of the Minsk Agreements, including the deployment of a peacekeeping mission with a UN Security Council mandate as an essential security element.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin has gone to New York on the president's orders to attend a UN Security Council session dealing with Ukraine.

"We thank Germany for its engagement, and it will be very important to hear the Russian representative's position. Certainly, we very firmly expect that a decision regarding peacekeepers might be made in the near future," Poroshenko said.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said following talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin on May 18 that foreign ministers were already preparing for a possible top-level Normandy-format meeting, although the date had not yet been set.

Putin also said Russia and Germany would continue working together within the Normandy format.