PHOTO: Putin, Poroshenko shake hands at Minsk talks

2014-08-26
From wire reports, MINSK

Russian President Vladimir Putin shakes hands with Ukraine’s Petro Poroshneko whilst top EU official Catherine Ashton watches (photo: twitter)

Russia's Vladimir Putin and Ukraine's Petro Poroshenko greeted each other with a handshake at the start of talks in Belarus on Tuesday on the Ukraine crisis, the first time the two presidents have met since June, Reuters reports.

Tensions between the two countries were heightened before the meeting when Ukraine released video of Russian soldiers it has captured in eastern Ukraine, where its army has been fighting pro-Russian separatist rebels since April.

A Russian defense ministry source said the Russian forces had crossed the border by accident despite being found 20 kilometers inside the border

Lithuanian foreign minister Linas Linkevicius who met with Poroshenko last week called the findings an "open military invasion"

Lithuania has said it will send an expert Kiev in September to help the government with economic and integration reforms.

(from l to r) Russia President Vladimir Putin, EU high representative for foreign affairs Catherine Ashton, Belarusian President Aleksander Lukashenko and Ukraine's President Petro Poroshenko (photo: delfi.lv via AP/scanpix)