YATSENIUK: SIGNING OF KHARKIV AGREEMENTS WAS A MISTAKE ONLY THE UKRAINIAN NAVY SHOULD BE BASED IN SEVASTOPOL
Kyiv, July 29, 2013 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Batkivschyna faction leader Arseniy Yatseniuk has said he believes that only the Ukrainian Navy should be present in Crimea.
“I think that the signing and ratification of the so-called Kharkiv agreements was a key mistake made by the incumbent president. This was an unconstitutional, anti-state and anti-Ukrainian decision. Only the Ukrainian Navy should be based in Sevastopol,” he told reporters at a briefing in Kyiv on Sunday at the monument to Prince Volodymyr.
“We can defend ourselves on our own, and, if necessary, we can also defend our neighbors, I mean the Russians,” Yatseniuk said.
As reported, in April 2010, the presidents of Ukraine and Russia signed the so-called Kharkiv agreements that extended a lease on the stationing of the Russian Black Sea Fleet in Crimea for another 25 years (after 2017) with its possible extension for five more years – until 2047.
According to a presidential decree of December 30, 2011, Ukrainian sailors celebrate their professional holiday on the last Sunday of July, on Ukrainian Navy Day.
Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych and Russian President Vladimir Putin attended the events marking the 1,025th anniversary of the Christianization of the Kyiv Rus and the navy days of Ukraine and Russia in Sevastopol on July 28.
