World Bulletin / News Desk

Belarussian President Alexander Lukashenko and Ukraine's Petro Poroshenko will meet on Sunday, Belarus's official news agency Belta reported.

A spokesman for Poroshenko the meeting between the two men in Kiev "was entirely unrelated" to the international contact group seeking to resolve the separatist conflict in east Ukraine.

Belarus is a close ally of Russia but also has a solid relationship with Ukraine. It hosted hosted a round of peace talks in September of the contact group of envoys from Russia, Ukraine and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.

A new round of talks in the same format is also scheduled for Sunday in Minsk. A ceasefire agreed in the September meeting was repeatedly flouted by both sides.