President Serzh Sargsyan will attend the inauguration of Ukrainian president-elect Victor Yanukovych scheduled to take place in Kiev this week.

The Armenian president’s press service reports that on the Sargsyan-led delegation will be Chairman of the pro-government Prosperous Armenia party Gagik Tsarukyan, presidential advisor Andranik Manukyan and Armenia’s ambassador to Ukraine Armen Khachatryan.

Yanukovych, who won a tense runoff against Ukraine’s prime minister Yulia Timoshenko on February 7, will be sworn in as Ukraine’s head of state in a ceremony on Thursday expected to be attended by top delegations of foreign states. Russia’s President Dmitry Medvedev and Turkey’s Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan are also invited to attend.

Yanukovych has extensive ties with Armenia. He was declared an honorary citizen of Spitak in 2004 for his outstanding contribution in the elimination of consequences of the 1988 devastating earthquake in Armenia. (Yanukovych led a Ukrainian rescue effort in the aftermath of the earthquake that hit severely Armenia’s northern provinces, killing at least 25,000 and leaving hundreds of thousands crippled and homeless.

The Ukrainian leader visited Spitak on the 20th anniversary of the earthquake in 2008. A central square in the Armenian town was named after him in his presence then.