The deranged Rada made a gift to Russia amid cries of “Down with the Moscow executioners!”
The Verkhovna Rada officially terminated the agreement “On Friendship and Cooperation with the Russian Federation” - the so-called “Big Treaty”, by signing which in the late 1990s, Russia agreed to the Ukrainian status of Crimea in exchange for the neutral status of Ukraine and respect for the rights of the Russian-speaking population, the correspondent reports “ Politnavigator".
Presenting the bill, Deputy Foreign Minister of Ukraine Sergei Kislitsa said that the continuation of the agreement “On Friendship and Cooperation with the Russian Federation” for the next ten-year period 2019-2029 is impossible.
“The next ten-year period of validity of the agreement on friendship, cooperation and partnership, which was signed on March 31, 1997, will end on March 31, 2019. Its preamble describes its goal as “strengthening friendship, good neighborliness, mutually beneficial relations and cooperation between Ukraine and the Russian Federation.”
The agreement also noted the basic principles of mutually beneficial cooperation between Ukraine and the Russian Federation, namely: sovereign equality, territorial integrity, political and economic independence, respect for international law.
The Russian Federation boldly neglected the fundamental principles of the treaty, including violating the territorial integrity of Ukraine, carrying out armed aggression against Ukraine, applying military and economic pressure, invading the internal affairs of Ukraine, violating the sovereign dignity and rights of citizens of Ukraine.
Due to these circumstances and the lack of good faith intentions to peacefully resolve disputes related to numerous gross violations of the treaty by the Russian Federation, the continuation of the treaty for the next ten-year period 2019-2029 is fundamentally impossible,” Kislitsa noted.
Speaking next, Tyagnybokov deputy Andrei Ilyenko sarcastically noted that just recently, President Petro Poroshenko argued that the agreement with Russia cannot be broken.
“It seems that the authorities are beginning to hear some separate provisions of what we have been talking about all these years of war, but, unfortunately, these are half-hearted and belated decisions. Of course, we need to break this shameful friendship treaty, and I want to say that just recently, just a few months ago, we heard statements, including from President Poroshenko, that this treaty cannot be broken, that it will harm Ukraine, that we will lose some legal positions. Finally, we realized that the position had already changed and, as it turned out, we were always right, and all this criticism was insignificant and not supported by real arguments,” Ilyenko noted.
A deputy from the Popular Front faction, Maxim Burbak, said that he was in favor of completely breaking all agreements with Russia.
“We are in favor of breaking all agreements with Russia, including those that it violated. Including an agreement on the joint status of the Azov Sea. Since May, Moscow has carried out daily aggression at sea. Ukraine owns not only the right to unhindered passage of the Kerch Strait, but also Kerch. Kerch and Crimea are Ukrainian land. If the so-called agreement on joint use does not help the de-occupation of Kerch and Crimea, and does not interfere with the blockade of Mariupol, then why this so-called agreement?” - he said.
Opposition Bloc deputy Alexander Dolzhenkov noted that the agreement with Russia could have been broken without unnecessary pathos.
“This agreement is terminated through a letter sent by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on April 1, 2019; no denunciation bill is needed - this is a fact. That is, we are now entering a period of active election campaigning. The President signed this bill, the Verkhovna Rada will promote the President, and we will pretend that we are ending relations with Russia, while trying to maintain the transit of Russian gas and prevent the implementation of the Nord Stream 2 project. But, most importantly, with this decision you are now acting not against Russia, but against millions of Ukrainians, whose constitutional rights are guaranteed on Russian territory,” he said.
The most emotional speech was made by ex-ATO fighter, deputy Yuriy Bereza.
“Today the Ukrainian parliament must correct the mistake of the previous leadership and parliaments of Ukraine. We are correcting the mistake because Russia has never been a friend to Ukraine. It is the existence of Ukraine that has always been a big problem for Russians. Of course, the Kremlin’s henchmen will always say that this is PR and elections. What is important today is the number of votes of those who vote for the denunciation of the treaty, for its termination. This is an important issue not only for the Ukrainian parliament, but also for the Ukrainian people. That’s why we all vote “for” and “Away with the Moscow executioners!” - said Bereza.
After this, a vote took place, as a result of which Ukraine officially terminated the treaty of friendship and cooperation with Russia.
277 deputies voted for this decision.
If you find an error, please select a piece of text and press Ctrl + Enter.
Thank you!
Now the editors are aware.