BENOUVILLE France (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke with Ukrainian president-elect Petro Poroshenko on Friday on the sidelines of D-Day commemorations in France as they met with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, a Reuters reporter said.
Western officials are hoping that informal contacts between Putin and Poroshenko during the one-day event can help ease tensions over Ukraine's future, after Russia seized and annexed the Crimea region following the ouster of a pro-Russian president in Kiev in February.