MOSCOW, April 20. /TASS/. The CIS countries will be ready to provide military assistance, if any member country approaches its allies with such a request, CIS Secretary General Sergey Lebedev said in an interview with TASS.

"There are no treaties or agreements providing for military assistance within the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). Such agreements have been signed within the framework of the Collective Security Treaty Organization and the Russia-Belarus Union State. But if any member turns to its allies in the CIS for help, I am deeply convinced that such assistance will be provided," he said.

The CIS is a regional interstate organization that currently has 11 former Soviet republics as its members, namely Russia, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Ukraine. Since the incumbent government came to power in Ukraine in 2014, the country has not actually taken part in the organization’s activities.