KYIV, Aug. 19 - President Petro Poroshenko will hold negotiations on August 24 with U.S. Defense Secretary James Mattis, who will pay a visit to Kyiv to attend celebratory events on the occasion of Ukraine's Independence Day, the presidential press service reported.

"The first visit of the U.S. defense secretary to Ukraine in the past ten years will take place in accordance with preliminary arrangements with the U.S. side reached during the president's visit to the United States this June," it said.