Russian President Vladimir Putin urged Ukraine to weigh carefully the benefits of joining Russia’s regional trade bloc against its plans for closer ties with the European Union on a visit to the country to attend a religious festival.

Putin used references to common history to remind Ukraine of the potential benefits of a closer alliance with Russia, just four months before a summit in the Lithuanian capital Vilnius where Kiev hopes to sign landmark deals with the European Union.

“There is tough competition going on for the global markets. And I am sure most of you realise that only by joining forces we can be competitive and win in this rather tough struggle,” Putin told a conference in Kiev on Saturday.

Putin was visiting Ukraine for the 1,025th anniversary of a mass baptism that marked the consolidation of Kievan Rus, the mediaeval state from which the Russian Empire later grew.

He cited figures showing that while Russia’s trade with Ukraine fell 18 per cent in the first quarter of this year, trade turnover with-in the Moscow-led post-Soviet Customs Union bloc grew by two to three per cent.

Russia, averse to Ukraine’s move towards the EU, has long urged Ukraine to join the Customs Union bloc formed mainly of ex-Soviet states.

It has even hinted that Kiev could get a discount on Russian gas supplies on which Ukraine depends heavily but which it says are being sold for an “exorbitant” price today.

But Kiev’s planned agreements on free trade and political association with the European Union, which it hopes to sign in November, will rule out the possibility of a trade deal with the Russia-led bloc.

And although Putin said on Saturday that Moscow “will respect any choice made by our Ukrainian partners, friends and brothers”, Kiev still can-not ignore the risk of retribution from Russia, the main market for Ukrainian exports, in the form of trade restrictions.