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Ukrainian Rada against denouncing agreement on Russian Black Sea Fleet

Ukrainian opposition claims the agreement signed with Russia in 2010 is a potential threat to Ukraine's sovereignty

Photo ITAR-TASS

Photo ITAR-TASS

KIEV, June 19 (Itar-Tass) - The Ukrainian Rada has turned down a proposed bill which calls to denounce an agreement which Ukraine signed with Russia in 2010, under which the presence of the Russian Black Sea Fleet in Sevastopol on the Ukrainian territory was extended for 25 years.

The bill was submitted to the Rada by deputy from Batkovshchina opposition faction Vladimir Javorivsky.

The opposition claims the agreement "was signed and ratified in defiance on the national interests of Ukraine and that it is fraught with a potential threat to Ukraine's sovereignty and its territorial integrity."

The proposed bill was challenged by deputies from the Party of Regions and communists.

Earlier, the Rada committee on international affairs had recommended rejecting the proposed bill because "it violates a number of Ukrainian laws and the 1969 Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties," the committee said.

On April 21, 2010 Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev signed an agreement on lengthening the term of the presence of the Russian Black Sea fleet on the territory of Ukraine until 2042; the cost of the lease of the territory was tied to the price of gas Russia supplies to Ukraine.

The Ukrainian Rada ratified the agreement on April 27, 2010.

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