Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbaev says Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko is "inclined to finding compromises" to resolve the conflict in eastern Ukraine between Kyiv and Russia-backed separatists.
At the meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Sochi on August 16, Nazarbaev said Poroshenko had told him by phone "recently" that the Ukrainian parliament "has been hindering the adoption of the legislation defining the status" of districts in Ukraine's eastern regions of Donetsk and Luhansk controlled by the separatists.
For his part, Putin thanked Nazarbaev for his role as a mediator in improving Russia's relations with Turkey and expressed the hope that declining trade between Russia and Kazakhstan will increase.
Nazarbaev said he plans to meet with Putin at least more five times before the end of the year.
The Sochi trip is Nazarbaev's 19th visit to Russia since 2012.