President Vladimir Putin attended a gala meeting in honour of the 10th anniversary of Ukraine's independence 2001-08-23 20:50:35 Kiev The meeting, in the Ukraine National Palace, was also attended by Macedonian President Boris Trajkovski, Polish President Alexander Kwasniewski, US Congress representatives, and envoys of a number of heads of state. Mr Putin and Mr Kuchma had a bilateral meeting after the gala. Mr Putin expressed his hope that Ukraine would ever remain an affluent country with high living standards, and once again congratulated the multi-ethnic Ukrainian nation on Russian peoples’ behalf.