Friction over Black Sea Fleet a thing of the past - Ukraine
KYIV. May 7 (Interfax) - Ukrainian Defense Minister Yury Yekhanurov
expressed satisfaction with the nature of relations between the
Ukrainian and Russian defense ministries.
"On the whole, I am satisfied with the character of cooperation
with the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation. Our cooperation
is permanent and proceeds at a normal pace. We do not politicize this
situation," Yekhanurov said in Kyiv on Wednesday.
The two countries' defense ministries had maintained permanent
contact since he met with Russian Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov in
February 2008, Yekhanurov said.
Yekhanurov also said Serdyukov had invited him to a planned
military parade in Moscow on May 9, the day Russia commemorates the
Soviet victory over Nazi Germany. "But we have our own, Ukrainian
events. So I thanked him and a deputy chief of the general staff has
gone there," the Ukrainian minister said.
Yekhanurov also spoke on the issue of the Russian Black Sea Fleet,
which is based in the Ukrainian autonomous region of Crimea under an
agreement prescribing that the fleet leave Ukraine by 2017.
Yekhanurov claimed that Ukrainian-Russian friction over the fleet
being based in Ukraine is a thing of the past. There were problems in
the 90s, but recently the two countries have been reaching agreement on
all points, he said.
Asked whether any procedures had begun for the fleet's pullout,
Yekhanurov said, "2017 is still a long way off."
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