Ukraine will swear in its latest president today amid tiny glimmers of hope for a solution to a crisis that has pitted it against its giant neighbour, Russia.
Ukraine´s new leader, Petro Poroshenko, will take the oath in Kiev´s parliament the day after he met with Russian President Vladimir Putin, widely seen in Ukraine as the country´s nemesis, during World War II commemorations in northern France.
“The dialogue has begun, and that´s a good thing,” Poroshenko said on Ukrainian television after the brief encounter.
He added that a Russian representative would travel to Ukraine for talks Sunday amid the first bilateral steps towards resolving their differences.
Putin and Poroshenko on Friday also jointly called for a ceasefire in the troubled southeast of Ukraine in a potential breakthrough in a crisis that has poisoned Moscow´s relations with the West.