Ukraine and Russia are expected to agree on key areas of cooperation before 2011. Kyiv hopes Ukraine and Russia will sign a declaration on a strategic partnership by the end of the year.

"We want to do this by the end of this year," Ukrainian Ambassador to Russia, Volodymyr Yelchenko, said during a press conference in Moscow on Tuesday.

He added that the new pact would fill in existing gaps in the bilaterial relationship. Yelchenko said he has submitted a draft proposal to the Russian side and that discussions between diplomats and foreign policy experts can now begin.

Yelchenko noted that President Viktor Yanukovych and his Russian counterpart Dmitriy Medvedev would meet at least two more times this year.

The first scheduled rendevous is to take place on the border of Bryansk and Chernihiv regions, and then they will hold another meeting in Zavidovo, he said. "The intergovernmental commission will hold its final meeting this year in November."

According to Yelchenko, meetings at other levels will also take place. "A meeting of the subcommittee on international cooperation at the level of foreign ministers will take place in Moscow on September 16," he said, adding that Prime Minister Mykola Azarov would travel to Moscow on October 2.