MOSCOW, August 19. /ITAR-TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin will attend a meeting of the heads of the Customs Union member states with Ukrainian leader Petro Poroshenko in Minsk on August 26, Putin’s spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told ITAR-TASS.

Representatives of the European Commission will also take part in the meeting in the Belarusian capital, the Kremlin said. Putin will also hold several bilateral meetings in Minsk, the Kremlin added.

They will discuss the humanitarian disaster in eastern Ukraine. 

"Naturally, we cannot ignore the catastrophic situation in Ukraine’s eastern regions, especially in Donetsk and Luhansk. We can assume that it is going to be part of the agenda,” Peskov said.

Putin, the Customs Union leaders and the Ukrainian president are also expected to discuss the relations between the Customs Union and Ukraine in the light of the Kiev-signed association agreement with the European Union.

Peskov noted that the Foreign Ministries of the aforesaid countries were discussing a possibility of Putin’s bilateral meetings with his counterparts. However, he refused to clarify whom exactly Putin was going to meet.

EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, EU Commissioners for Trade and Energy Karel De Gucht and Gunther Oettinger will come for the meeting in Minsk, the European Commission press service said.

The Customs Union member states are Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan.

Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Belarusian counterpart Alexander Lukashenko discussed by phone on Tuesday the preparation of a meeting between the leaders of the Customs Union and Ukraine and EU officials, the Kremlin press service said.

Putin told Lukashenko about the movement of the humanitarian convoy for south-eastern Ukraine and the problems it is facing on the way, the Kremlin said.

Earlier in the day, Lukashenko had a telephone conversation with his Ukrainian counterpart Petro Poroshenko to discuss a wide range of bilateral issues with a focus on the situation in Ukraine.

They “paid serious attention to the situation in Ukraine”, the Belarusian president’s press service said.