President Vladimir Putin had a telephone conversation with Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko. The conversation was held at Russia's initiative 2006-08-07 20:20:42 Mr Putin congratulated Mr Yushchenko on successfully resolving the political crisis in Ukraine. The two leaders discussed priority steps to develop Russian-Ukrainian relations over the coming months. A little later today, Mr Putin also had a telephone conversation with Viktor Yanukovich and congratulated him on his appointment as Ukraine’s prime minister. Both sides expressed the desire to move as quickly as possible to a concrete discussion of the current objectives in relations between the two countries.