Putin congratulates Ukrainian president on national holiday

Russian President Vladimir Putin has congratulated Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich on Ukraine's national holiday -- Independence Day. The Russian leader in the telegramme highly appraised the comprehensive character of Russian-Ukrainian ties, the Kremlin press service said. Putin noted that the recent meetings with the Ukrainian president in Kiev and Sevastopol and the joint celebration of the 1025th anniversary of the Baptism of Rus and Russian Navy Day and Ukrainian Navy Day once again confirmed the inviolability of the centuries-old traditions of friendship and good neighbourliness. The Russian president expressed the readiness to continue to step up mutually beneficial cooperation in the political, economic and humanitarian spheres and promote promising projects in the bilateral format and the format of the Commonwealth of Independent States in the interests of people of Russia and Ukraine.