The current contract between Russia and Ukraine, which does not have its own nuclear waste storage facility, expires this year.

"We are ready to sign base contracts even today, and I hope that we will sign them this week," Yury Nedashkovsky told journalists in Kiev.

Ukraine asked the Russian government to reduce the fee that has been charged from countries exporting nuclear waste to Russia and intended to cover ecological damage, he said.

Ukraine intends to build its first nuclear waste storage facility at the site of the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster.

Once the facility is ready, the country will stop shipping radioactive waste to Russia, Nedashkovsky said.

However, it is unclear when the facility will appear in Ukraine. In line with the contract signed in September 2007, it should be built within 52 months since the start of construction, which was planned for November.