Yanukovych, Putin hold informal meeting in Crimea

Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych and Russian Premier Vladimir Putin have held an informal meeting in Crimea, the Ukrainian presidential press service reported on Saturday.

Yanukovych and Putin discussed a number of issues of the Ukrainian-Russian relations. The president noted that the meeting took place ahead of a sitting of the Russian-Ukrainian interstate commission, the press service said.

"There are topics we have to discuss. The sub-committees have worked out lots of materials. The government reported this to me," the press service quoted Yanukovych as saying.

Putin in turn said that before the meeting with the Ukrainian president he discussed the issues related to the commission's meeting in a telephone conversation with Ukrainian counterpart Mykola Azarov.