KIEV, April 26 – Ukraine and Russia on Tuesday made little progress in discussion over the Custom Union, a Moscow-led trade bloc, and focused instead on bilateral trade ahead of a summit in June.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev met his Ukrainian counterpart Viktor Yanukovych on Tuesday for the first time this year, as relations between the two countries have cooled.

Medvedev and Yanukovych both visited Chernobyl nuclear power plant, the site of the world’s worst civilian nuclear catastrophe 25 years ago, to commemorate the victims.

Yanukovych praised Russia for providing financial resources and technical expertise in an effort of helping to turn the site into an environmentally safe area.

“Russia, as a neighbor, a partner and a friend of us is taking part in this,” Yanukovych told Medvedev. “This is very important. Thank you so much.”

But Medvedev’s agenda also included negotiations on trying to persuade Ukraine to join the Customs Union, a bloc that also includes Belarus and Kazakhstan.

Two weeks ago, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, during a visit to Kiev, failed to persuade the Ukrainian leaders to abandon free trade talks with the EU to join the Moscow-led bloc instead.

Ukraine’s decision is crucial. Any willingness by Ukraine to join the Customs Union would most likely lead to undermining trade talks with the EU, increasing political ties between Kiev and Moscow.

In the final statement after the Yanukovych-Medvedev talks, both parties have failed to mention any progress made in the discussions over the Customs Union.

Yanukovych said improving trade between the two countries - to $42 billion in 2010 from $15 billion in 2009 - is “the main conclusion” of his 13-month presidency so far. He said earlier this month that the mutual trade should increase to $50 billion in 2011 if both countries agree to remove existing trade restrictions.

But he also pointed to problems. “Still, we have many issues to solve,” Yanukovych said.

Medvedev agreed. “The teams are working. The Russian team is ready for comprehensive discussions.”

Medvedev and Yanukovych are now expected to hold their second meeting at the summit in June as part of a major push towards improving economic relations.

Still, the schedule of meetings between Yanukovych and Medvedev show that relations between the two have cooled over the past four months. The two met 11 times in the course of 10 months in 2010.

Besides foreign policy differences, the relations between Kiev and Moscow are overshadowed by Yanukovych’s refusal to merge national energy company Naftogaz Ukrayiny with Gazprom. The merger would give Gazprom control over Ukraine’s natural gas pipelines that carry gas to markets in Europe.

In reaction, Gazprom refused to lower natural gas prices for Ukraine, which poses a threat to fledgling economic growth. (tl/ez)