Border, not gas, focus of Kiev-Moscow talk

YALTA, Ukraine, July 13 (UPI) -- The Ukrainian president said he discussed maritime borders with his Russian counterpart during talks in Yalta, saying nothing of expected gas agreements.

Russian President Vladimir Putin met with his Ukrainian counterpart, Viktor Yanukovych, in the resort city of Yalta. Talks were expected to include discussions on bilateral natural gas deals, a sore spot in diplomatic affairs between both countries.

Russian energy company Gazprom cut gas supplies to Ukraine most recently in 2009. Kiev has complained the terms of the deal that broke the impasse were financially burdensome and sent opposition leader and former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko to prison for seven years for her role in the arrangement.

Yanukovych was quoted by Russian news agency RIA Novosti as instead saying both sides were able to reach a deal on maritime borders.

"We have agreed to speed up negotiations in order to finalize the delimitation in the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov, as well as in the Kerch Straight, as soon as possible," he said.

Both sides are at odds over post-Soviet border delineation in the region. Kiev unilaterally set its maritime borders when the Soviet Union collapsed in the 1990s, a move challenged by the Kremlin.