Ukraine's Poroshenko not optimistic about meeting with Putin

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko delivers a speech during a ceremony commemorating the victims of Babyn Yar (Babi Yar), one of the biggest single massacres of Jews during the Nazi Holocaust, on the outskirts of Kiev, Ukraine, September 29, 2016. REUTERS/Valentyn Ogirenko

OSLO (Reuters) - Ukraine's President Petro Poroshenko said he was not optimistic about a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Berlin on Wednesday addressing the conflict in Eastern Ukraine.

"For the tomorrow meeting, let's not have very high expectations," Poroshenko told reporters in Oslo. "Yes, I am very optimistic about the future of Ukraine but unfortunately not so much about tomorrow's meeting, but I would be very happy to be surprised".

Poroshenko has agreed to a so-called "Normandy Format" meeting in Berlin on Oct 19, bringing together Russia, Germany, France and Ukraine for talks on the separatist conflict in eastern Ukraine, he said in a separate statement earlier on Tuesday.

Fighting between Ukrainian troops and Russian-backed rebels has killed more than 9,600 since 2014, despite a ceasefire agreed in the Belarussian capital Minsk.

(Reporting by Stine Jacobsen; Editing by Dominic Evans)